BV 3790 
.B8 






INNING 
TO CHRIST 

F»E* BURROUGHS, D,D. 




Class. 
Book_ 



V 



B^. 



Gop\TightN°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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WINNING TO CHRIST 

K--™.- A STUDY IN EVANGELISM 



Take heed to thyself, and to tky teaching. Continue 
in these things; for in doing this thou shall save hoth 
thyself and them that hear thee. 1 Timothy 4: 16. 




Vi Ei^URROUGHS, D.D. 

1/ 

Kducational Secretary 



PRICE 
50 Cents Postpaid 



SUNDAY SCHOOL BOARD 

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 

NASHVILLE. TENN. 






OOPYmOHT. 1*14 

SUNDAY SCHOOL BOARD SOUTHERN 

BAPTIST CONVENTION 



/^' 



\nt> 



JAN -2 1915 

©CI.A393103 



1 






CONTENTS. 



LESSON PAGE 

I. What We Propose 9 

11. Why Study Winning to Christ? 20 

III. Culture versus Conversion 31 

IV. The Natural Moral State 46 

V. Some Requisites in Winning to Christ 60 

VI. Habits Which Aid in Winning to Christ 74 

VII. Winning to Christ Through the Sunday 

School 84 

VIII. Dealing with' the Individual 93 

IX. The Use of the Bible in Winning to Christ. . 102 

X. Dealing with Excuses and Difficulties 109 

XL Bringing to Baptism 124 

XII. Teaching Concerning the Church 136 

XIII. Interpreting to the Young Believer His Re- 

ligious Experience 150 

XIV. Dealing with Youthful Doubt 159 

XV. Amusement Problems 168 

XVI. The Young Believer and the Larger Chris- 
tian Life 179 

Questions for Review and Examination.... 190 



(3) 



f 



«..E3 



ISSUED UNDER 



I The Eva Garvey Publisking Fund 
I 

I 

S Given by B. E. Garvey 



New Liberty, Ky. 
Jan.. 1899 



SEVENTH BOOK 



f 

(4) 



A WORD OF EXPLANATION. 



The awakened interest in all phases of personal and 
practical evangelism and the eager quest for helps which 
may increase efficiency in the winning of souls and the 
culture of Hves, embolden the writer to offer the message 
of these pages and inspire the hope that this message 
will meet a sympathetic reception. While the concep- 
tion of this treatment and the body of its material were 
wrought out in days of pastoral evangelism and teach- 
ing, these chapters have been written primarily in re- 
sponse to the desire of the Sunday school field workers 
of the Southern Baptist Convention, as expressed 
through their normal course committee, for a brief 
teachable treatise on the fundamentals of culture and 
conversion. 

The discussions embrace a cycle of teaching, five 
closely related themes being studied: (i) The child's 
natural spiritual state, as vital and basal in all evan- 
gelistic and character-building efforts ; (2) lines of 
training and teaching which prepare the way for con- 
version; (3) means and methods in evangelismx; (4) 
lines of instruction concerning the church and its 
ordinances and methods of securing early and permanent 
church alignment; (5) teaching and training which will 
lead to rounded personal and denominational develop- 
ment. 

We have a rich and abundant literature on all of these 
subjects, the works of the fathers being supplemented 
by contributions from many modern writers. Our 
apology for assuming to add to this literature is four- 
fold : (i) There seems to be need for a continuous 
and connected statement concerning these successive and 

(5) 



b WINNING TO CHRIST 

closely related steps ; (2) it seems desirable that this 
statement shall be compact and brief so as to bring the 
entire treatment within the reach of busy workers; 
(3) the body of teaching in these lines should be cast 
in such form as will enable parents and teachers to 
master it and to pass it on to others, such form as will 
yield itself to drill and catechism purposes so that the 
material may be readily taught to children and young 
people; (4) in these days of hesitant and unsatisfactory 
teaching concerning certain fundamentals, such as the 
essential sinfulness and need of the child, the necessity 
for repentance, faith and a new birth, it seems worth 
while to set forth and emphasize these as they are most 
surely believed among us according to the Scriptures. 
The serving of any one of these ends would seem to 
justify the issuance of a new treatise, and the hope that 
all four of these purposes may in some measure be met 
emboldens us to offer this contribution. 

The whole world is studying the child. The whole 
Christian world is studying the child from the view- 
point of the kingdom of God. A supreme test of any 
system of theology is the word it speaks here. The 
supreme question for today and for coming days is the 
question of the child, his estate by nature and the 
changes necessary in order that he may enter the king- 
dom of grace, together with the means by which such 
changes may be wrought. A ceaseless stream of litera- 
ture is issuing from the press which teaches the attract- 
ive but deadly doctrine that the child is born in the 
kingdom of God, and requires only Christian culture 
in order to be a Christian. The commanding problem 
of the church and Sunday school life of our day is the 
problem of the child, the problem of interpreting the 
child nature in the light of the atonement and of inter- 
preting the atonement in its message for the child. 



A WORD OF EXPLANATION Y 

The subjects treated in the Convention Normal Course 
are Sunday school organization, pupil-study, teaching, 
doctrines and Bible. Ample and varied as this curric- 
ulum must seem, it has been deemed insufficient for 
the instruction and guidance of Christian workers with- 
out a treatise on evangelism, which in the large sense 
herein viewed stands central in all Christian thought 
and effort. Thus this Normal Course is rounded out 
into a comprehensive system of practical and doctrinal 
teaching for all types of religious workers. 

The book constitutes a section in the Convention 
Normal Course and for its study after the manner 
herein set forth a seal is to be awarded for the normal 
diploma. Each chapter will probably constitute a suit- 
able lesson assignment, and at the close of each chapter 
questions are printed to guide and test lesson study. 
Questions at the close of the book are designed for a 
general review, and normal course students will submit 
to a written examination in accordance with the printed 
instructions. 

It is hoped that the book may serve a wider purpose. 
Believers may find it helpful as inspirational and devo- 
tional reading. The pastor may form classes for the 
study of selected portions in preparation for a coming 
revival effort, or he may use it as the basis of devo- 
tional study for some wrecks in the prayer meeting. 
Young peoples' societies and organized classes which 
aspire to usefulness in soul-winning may wish to pursue 
these studies. The evangelist may draw together an 
inner circle each day during revival meetings for a 
study and discussion of the doctrines and methods 
herein stated. Anxious parents and perplexed teachers 
may find here some helpful hints for guidance in the 
deHcate and difficult tasks which come to their hands, 
and they may be able to use certain portions as a 



8 WINNING TO CHRIST 

catechism far the instruction of the children intrusted 
to their care. 

In this, as in all the books of the Convention Normal 
Course, it is assumed that our homes and our churches 
are primarily educational institutions. In his function 
of teacher, the teacher of all his teachers, the pastor is 
to come into his largest sphere of power. The parent 
is to teach ; the home is to be a center for instruction. 
The church and the church school are to teach; the 
B. Y. P. U. is to teach; and all are to teach in the 
widest realms of doctrine and of life. If this effort 
to state some vital things touching young life shall 
in any measure serve to guide or help some in the 
great army of our King to be better teachers, the author 
will count this ample compensation for any labors which 
may have been expended in the preparation of these 
chapters. P. E. B. 



WINNING TO CHRIST. 



I. 

,WHAT WE PROPOSE. 

MANY phrases have suggested themselves 
as possible designations for these studies. 
A brief glance at these phrases with a statement 
of the reason why each was rejected and why 
'^Winning to Christ" is chosen will indicate the 
scope of study which is here proposed. 

Evangelism has been considered. Strictly 
speaking, evangelism means winning to Christ 
by a proclamation of the evangel, the good news 
of the Christ. It carries the idea of the simple 
process of bringing to Christ; it speaks of the 
glorious work of bringing to discipleship, of the 
initial bringing into the kingdom of grace. It 
can hardly be said to embrace the preparatory 
processes which are essential to an early and full 
surrender to Christ, as it does not include the 
later measures of training and culture which are 
essential to the rounded completeness of Chris- 
tian life and character. 

The phrase does not serve our present purpose 
for the reason that we wish to include a study 

(9) 



10 WINNING TO CHRIST 

both of the preparatory steps and of the later 
processes of care and culture. Certainly con- 
version, the initial coming to Christ, is a central 
and vital point, but we would consider also the 
influences and training which pave the way for 
conversion, together with the early experiences 
and training which go to make possible the best 
fruits of conversion. In a word, we would study 
the whole rounded process of ''Winning to 
Christ.'' We aspire to win to Christ the whole 
nature with all of its powers and possibilities. 
While the phrase "Evangelism'' is thus hardly 
adequate to set forth the purpose of our present 
studies, yet the word is so significant and widely 
used, and that for which it stands so strikes at 
the heart of what we desire, we shall find our- 
selves frequently employing it. 

Sunday School Evangelism has been proposed. 
In any study of ''Winning to Christ" the Sunday 
school must have special consideration. An 
enlarged place and emphasis the Sunday school 
has come to hold in all soul-winning eflfort. And 
yet we require here a right perspective giving to 
all agencies and elements proper place and 
emphasis. 

While the personal element must predominate 
in all evangelistic eflfort, and surely we do well 
to insist upon personal evangelism, yet there are 
three divinely given institutions which contribute 
to evangelism — the home, the Sunday school and 



WHAT WE PROPOSE 11 

the church. Normally, the home is the mightiest 
factor. It has the child in the early, plastic years 
almost exclusively. Its silent and persistent in- 
fluence is all but irresistible. It is for the home 
to give the earliest bent and bias toward God. 
The influence of a Christian father and mother 
may count for more toward conversion than all 
teachers and schools, all preachers and churches, 
more than all other individuals or institutions. 
The Sunday school, the connecting link between 
the home and the church, further plants the seed 
of the gospel. Touching the home on the one 
side, it supplements its instructions and appeals; 
touching the church on the other side, it seeks to 
prepare the life for its sacred service. Finally, 
the church comes in with its glorious word of 
atonement and its message of life in Jesus, and 
reaps in salvation the harvest which has been 
preparing in the work of the home and the Sun- 
day school. 

Certainly it is possible to conceive of conver- 
sion with one or another of these elements 
lacking. Men are saved who received no Chris- 
tian impress in the home ; men are converted who 
never knew the blessing of the Sunday school; 
men are sometimes brought to Christ when other 
influences than the church seem to operate for 
their salvation. But we cannot "win to Christ'' 
in the best and largest sense without the coopera- 
tion of these three agencies. It is possible to 



12 WINNING TO CHRIST 

bring to a decision for Christ in the home or in 
the Sunday school, though it seems good to let 
the home and the Sunday school stand in line 
as contributing and preparatory agencies and to 
bring the lost to a confession of Jesus as Saviour 
and Lord in the fine atmosphere of the morning 
or evening worship when the whole congregation 
is gathered before the Lord. So it falls out that 
while we propose to magnify the Sunday school 
and give it due emphasis in this mighty work, 
Sunday school evangelism is hardly adequate to 
set forth our real task. 

Educational Evangelism, has been suggested. 
Two elements are essential in soul-winning 
efforts, education and evangelistic effort. When 
a soul surrenders to Christ in a blessed experi- 
ence of grace, such surrender comes through a 
twofold process, educational preparation and the 
revival influence. The education to which we 
refer may be imparted in an endless variety of 
ways ; it may be by passive influence or by active 
teaching; or, better, by both of them; it is safe 
to say that no soul ever comes to Christ without 
some such preparation, and in the light of Scrip- 
ture example and precept it is safe to insist upon 
the place and meaning of the educational element. 
It is further true that no soul can come to Christ 
save through the revival influence. As with 
education, so with the revival, it may come in a 
variety of forms and with various manifestations. 



WHAT WE PROPOSE 13 

The revival may or may not involve a protracted 
meeting. Whenever and wherever a soul is 
saved, there is a revival, a revival effort, a revival 
atmosphere, a revival fruit. Educational evan- 
gelism, as emphasizing the necessary educational 
processes in soul-winning, is well enough. But if 
educational evangelism is to obscure the revival 
element and to eclipse the special and glorious 
work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, it 
becomes a delusion offering a stone instead of 
bread. 

Because educational evangelism may seem to 
give scant emphasis to the special evangelistic 
element, the high and mighty work of grace in 
the heart, it is not quite acceptable as describing 
our task. 

Child Evangelism. So far as distinction may 
be properly made, we will approach evangelism 
from the viewpoint of the child rather than from 
that of the adult. Such approach is natural and 
normal. At the same time we must insist that in 
its essentials, in its final analysis, child evangelism 
is not different from adult evangelism. Some one 
has said, 'The New Testament is a book dealing 
almost entirely with adults.'' Rather let us say 
that the New Testament deals with man as man, 
without regard to age or condition. It is univer- 
sal in its message and scope. The conditions 
precedent to baptism are such as are suitable and 
inevitable for all who come to baptism. 



14 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Awhile ago only adult conversion was believed 
in or sought, and it was scarcely believed that a 
child could be saved. The word to the child 
seemed to be, "Except ye be converted and be- 
come as a grown man ye cannot enter the king- 
dom of heaven." Little effort was made for the 
conversion of children, and a wide-spread skepti- 
cism existed as to the genuineness of child con- 
version. Now the pendulum has swung back the 
other way. Everybody believes in the possibility 
and necessity of child conversion, while some 
have almost come to question whether we can 
any longer win men and women. An eminent 
minister said awhile ago, 'Tn my early days there 
seemed to be a question as to whether children 
could be really converted ; now there seems to be 
some question as to whether anybody besides 
children can be converted.'' It is well to remind 
ourselves that the same Lord who took little 
children in his arms and blessed them also came 
to seek and to save that which was lost, that he 
gathered about him publicans and sinners, giving 
himself and delivering his message to sinful men. 
''Only by deserting the method of the Master 
can we give the conversion of mature men, yes, 
of hardened sinners, a secondary place in our 
expectations and Christian efforts." 

The conversion of a child may differ widely 
from the conversion of a man, as the conversion 
of a given man may differ widely from the con- 



WHAT WE PROPOSE 15 

version of another man. The experience of a 
child is usually different from that of an adult 
in the depth of feeling and in many other par- 
ticulars, but we do well to lay it to heart that 
the essentials are in either case the same. Our 
Lord did not make two atonements, one for the 
child and another for the man. There were not 
wrought out two plans of salvation, one for the 
child and one for the adult. There are not two 
processes by which we are to conre into the king- 
dom of God, one for children and one for mature 
people. Insidious peril lurks in the tendency to 
regard child evangelism as an essentially distinct 
type of evangelism, and to consider the child as 
somehow possessing inherent innocence which, 
if it does make conversion unnecessary, yet makes 
salvation possible to the child on some easier 
basis than to the adult. 

The Scriptures bring us the conditions of sal- 
vation with no hint of distinction between child 
and adult or between man and man. 'There is no 
difference ; for all have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 22, 23). ''But as 
many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the sons of God, even to them that believe 
on his name" (John i : 12). 

Child evangelism, as indicating and magnify- 
ing the winning of children is well enough, but 
child evangelism as hinting that the need and 
experience of the child is in any essential different 



16 WINNING TO CHRIST 

from the need and experience of the adult is not 
for a moment to be accepted. We will approach 
the great question of winning to Christ from its 
normal and natural viewpoint, that of the child 
in unfolding life, but we will demand and expect 
conviction for sin, repentance and faith, regenera- 
tion ; in a word, all the constituent elements which 
enter into any experience of grace. 

Soul-winning. This phrase is widely used 
and expressive. Certainly it may be said that 
we are concerned to save lives, not simply to save 
souls ; our commission is to deal with the whole 
man, the man physically and mentally, no less 
than the man spiritually. The gospel is not 
meant alone to cure ills and aches of the heart 
and wounds of the soul, but to sweeten and save 
the whole man. It is not simply an insurance 
company by which we are to be guaranteed 
immunity in death and safety in eternity. It is 
not merely a transportation agency by which we 
are to have safe transfer from this life to realms 
of bliss. Our gospel proposes to save men, to 
save the whole man, here, in time, and this to 
the end that he may be saved in eternity. 

Yet we may not forget that the gospel in sav- 
ing men deals primarily with sin and concerns 
itself first of all with the soul. It will sweeten 
and bless the whole life by cleansing the inward 
life from sin. It deals primarily with the soul, 
the spirit, where sin dwells and whence are the 



WHAT WE PROPOSE 17 

fountains of life. True, it is not merely an 
insurance against loss at death, but it is such 
insurance. It is not simply an agency for safe 
transfer to heaven when this life ends. Yet it 
is such an agency. Successful evangelism is 
based on the conviction that the gospel saves in 
the crisis of death and the judgment, that it gives 
sure entrance into the presence of God. 

If we will purify and sweeten the life we must 
first see that the soul, the deep inward source 
of life, is purified and sweetened. Sin in the soul 
is the source of all the real ills of life. The 
gospel deals primarily with sin and begins by 
saving the soul. "The soul of all improvement 
is the improvement of the soul." While the 
phrase, "soul-winning," is hardly adequate to set 
forth the whole work of the Christ in the life, 
and hence is hardly sufficient to describe our 
present task, it yet strikes at the heart of that 
work. 

Winning to Christ, In this phrase we have 
both evangelism and culture, both education and 
the revival, soul-winning and all that accom- 
panies soul-winning. Our real task is to win to 
Christ, to win and save the whole life with all 
its elements and powers to the kingdom and 
service of God. This phrase faces out toward 
all life, the child and the adult alike. "Win" is 
a good scriptural phrase. It implies what must 
never be obscured or forgot, that men are from 
2 



18 WINNING TO CHRIST 

birth alienated from God and must be won. "He 
that is wise winneth souls" (Prov. ii : 30). The 
word here used is suggestive. It is taken from 
the hunter's craft and literally means "ensnareth/' 
''taketh alive." Sinful souls, wandered and 
alienated from God, must be ensnared, taken 
alive, and delivered back to God. It is this large, 
rounded task of "Winning to Christ" which we 
are to study together in these pages, evangelism 
together with the preceding processes of prepara- 
tion and the succeeding processes of training. 

RESTATEMENT. 

What We Propose. 
A study of — 

I. Evangelism? 

Hardly adequate. 
II. Sunday School Evangelism? 
Not a full perspective. 
III. Educational Evangelism? 

Hardly sufficient. 
IV. Child Evangelism? 
Inadequate. 
V. Soul- winning? 

Hardly sufficient. 
VI. Winning to Christ ! 

Both adequate and sufficient, setting forth the 
studies which we propose. 



WHAT WE PROPOSE 19 

To Guide and Test Study. 

What is evangelism? Why is the phrase inadequate 
to describe our present scope of study? 

What insititutions especially contribute to evangelism? 
Which should be the greatest factor? Why? 

What two elements are essential in the soul-winning 
process? Why is educational evangelism hardly accept- 
able as defining our task? 

State the things in which child evangelism and adult 
evangelism are not different. In what are they differ- 
ent? What change has come in the attitude toward 
child conversion? What should be our attitude toward 
the conversion of adults? Why is child evangelism 
insufficient to describe our task? 

In what sense does the phrase "soul-winning" appear 
to be inadequate? How far may we press this ob- 
jection? 

What advantages has the phrase "winning to Christ" ? 
What is the significance of the word "win"? 



11. 

WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST? 

THIS theme must command the attention and 
thought of pastors, Sunday school workers, 
Christian parents and all who love the Lord 
Jesus. Among the many and commanding rea- 
sons why this study is worth our while, we can 
name only a few of the more important and 
comprehensive. We should study ''Winning to 
Christ'' (i) because this task is supreme and 
supremely glorious; (2) because of the place 
which ''Winning to Christ'' holds in the Sunday 
school; (3) because of the place which the Sun- 
day school holds in "Winning to Christ" ; (4) 
because "Winning to Christ" is an art, a fine 
art, which, having its own laws, requires intelli- 
gent effort; (5) because the study and practice 
of evangelism brings us into the Holy of Holies 
of all spiritual service. 

The task of winning to Christ is supreme and 
supremely glorious. We are saved in order that 
we may save; we are ourselves chosen and re- 
deemed through divine love that we may win 
others to love the great Saviour and to know 
the great salvation. Beyond all controversy the 
supreme end of every Christian life is somehow, 
somewhere, to fit into God's mighty plan to save 

(20) 



WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST 21 

men. As winning to Christ is supreme in indi- 
vidual life, so also is it preeminent in the mission 
of the churches of our Lord Jesus. And this 
work is supremely glorious. It engages the 
thought and employs the effort of the triune God ; 
the Father planned it, the Son executed the eter- 
nal plan; while the Spirit applies the atoning 
work of the Christ. ;This work engages the 
attention and commands the interest of the un- 
fallen angels and the hosts of the redeemed. As 
the saints and the angels look down upon the 
affairs of men and view this earth, they are not 
so much interested in political revolutions, in ebbs 
and flows in the financial world, in social up- 
heavals, as they are concerned for God's mighty 
redemptive work among the sons of men. 

Winning to Christ holds the supreme place in 
the Sunday school. Evangelism in the broad 
sense in which we use the phrase stands central 
in the Sunday school. Beyond all question the 
business of the Sunday school is "winning to 
Christ.'' This is our task, first to bring to simple 
surrender to Christ and acceptance of Him as 
Saviour, then to bring the whole life into har- 
mony with his will, to make men Christian in all 
the depth and sweetness of that term. Failing 
here, we have failed utterly. Tt is of little avail 
that our youth shall grow up to know the Bible 
if they do not come to know by a vital experience 
the Christ of the Bible. It is of little moment 



22 WINNING TO CHRIST 

that men shall come to know the frame work of 
Bible history if they are not to know the living 
Spirit which breathes in every part of that his- 
tory. We have signally failed if having taught 
our youth the Ten Commandments of God, we 
do not bring them to know and obey the God of 
the Ten Commandments ; if having taught them 
to know the twelve disciples of our Lord, we do 
not bring them to know our Lord himself. Let 
all the estates of Israel, let all the forces of the 
home and the Sunday school, set forth this as a 
supreme goal, that the young life about us shall 
be redeemed by the blood and brought into com- 
plete subjection and conformity to the will of 
Christ. 

Every worker in the Sunday school would do 
well to face quietly and candidly the question as 
to what in the work of the school shall have first 
place. Are there schools in which numbe?'s, a 
great attendance, seems to hold first place in 
thought and effort? i\Iore is said of numbers 
and attendance than is said of bringing to Christ. 
More, and more persistent, effort is made to in- 
crease the membership than to win to Christ. 
Surely, it is good to be zealous for numbers and 
to seek by relentless effort to increase attendance, 
but in quietness and confidence the first place in 
thought and plan is to win to the Saviour. 

Are there schools which are exhausting their 
energy in the effort to maintain an elaborate and 



WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST 23 

complicated machinery of organization? Organ- 
ization is good, but it is a means to an end, and 
is never to be made an end in itself. The Sunday 
school, like the church, is made up of devout, 
simple-hearted folk, bent on a single and simple 
purpose. When organization becomes complex 
and irksome, consuming the efforts and energy 
of the school or of the church, it ceases to be a 
blessing and becomes a burden. Oxen are organ- 
ized and put under a yoke not to increase but to 
lessen their loads. Horses are organized and put 
into harness not for the sake of the harness, but 
for the larger service they may render. Organ- 
ization in proper form and within proper limits 
will make easier all the tasks and burdens of Sun- 
day school and church life. 

A man in Texas invented a cotton-picking 
machine. It was a notable achievement. Thou- 
sands of earnest men had bent their energies to 
this end and had failed. This man was elated 
over his success. Certain officials and govern- 
ment experts came to Ipass on the merits of the 
new machine. They looked it over, tested it, 
found it a perfect bit of machinery, wonderful 
and complete. They had only one fault to find 
— it would not pick cotton. Are there modern 
Sunday schools which bear some resemblance to 
that cotton-picking machine? 

In many ways the preeminence of evangelism 
in the work of the Sunday school is being recog- 



24 WINNING TO CHRIST 

nized. The Standards of Efficiency erected by 
the various evangelical denominations now prac- 
tically all take account of evangelism, requiring 
that it shall be emphasized and specifying that 
in the school special appeals shall be made to the 
unsaved to accept Christ; in the normal courses 
offered for the training of Sunday school workers 
this matter of winning to Christ is taking rank as 
a department of study with organization, psychol- 
ogy, teaching and missions. 

The Sunday school holds large place in ''znnn- 
ning to Christ/' Two cooperative agencies must 
be relied on in the matter of evangelism, viz. : 
education and the revival or the evangelistic 
appeal. These two elements are not to be sepa- 
rated from each other. Any revivalism which 
should fail to take account of education and the 
many essential processes of preparation would 
be worthless; education which is not permeated 
with the purpose and spirit of evangelism is 
equally unavailing. "Let us evangelize our edu- 
cation and educationalize our evangelism.'' 

The word is sometimes passed around that our 
day has witnessed a transfer from the old-time 
emphasis on the revival to a special emphasis on 
education. It is said that the revival is no longer 
a factor and that its day of usefulness has passed. 
True, in some churches where the evangelistic 
fires have died and possibly in some sections 
where love for souls has waned, the old-time 



WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST 25 

revival may have passed. True, also, that certain 
types of revival effort and method have passed, 
and should pass. But in the spiritual, as in the 
material, realm the law still holds, 'While the 
earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest shall not 
cease.'' Down through Old Testament history 
and throughout the history of Christianity prog- 
ress and advance have come through revivals. 
Much is said in favor of the perennial revival ; 
Mr. Spurgeon and some others in exceptional 
circumstances and of exceptional ability have 
been able to maintain a continuous state of 
revival. But the perennial revival can, as a rule, 
be maintained only with the help of the occasional 
special revival effort. The notable instances of 
exception in Mr. Spurgeon and others only go 
to strengthen the general rule that God's law is 
seed-time and harvest. 

As a matter of fact, is the revival really pass- 
ing? A generation ago Mr. Moody stood out in 
some distinctness among the few really influ- 
ential evangelists. We could easily name now a 
number of well-known evangelists who draw as 
large audiences and as completely move great 
cities as did Mr. Moody ; only the name of sane 
and mighty evangelists is now legion. In a 
recent evangelistic conference held at the Moody 
school in Chicago, more than three hundred evan- 
gelists assembled to confer together about the 
things of the kingdom. The Southwestern Bap- 



26 WINNING TO CHRIST 

ti'st Theological Seminary has a chair of Evan- 
gelism, ably filled, and we have come on times 
when every preacher and pastor is expected to 
possess evangelistic ability and to engage con- 
stantly in soul-winning effort. We may change, 
and possibly improve, the old-time methods of 
revival w^ork, but we will never be able to dis- 
pense with the old-time revival. 

We would hardly care to say that our day is 
witnessing a transfer of emphasis from the 
revival to education. Let us rather say that there 
is increasing* disposition to put emphasis on the 
processes of education and training which make 
possible a perennial revival. We are depending 
on quiet, persistent evangelism more than on 
special revival efforts. We are drawing our edu- 
cational processes and our revival efforts closer 
together. Our educators, pastors, teachers and 
parents are becoming our evangelists. We have 
perhaps overworked the saying, ''one soweth and 
another reapeth," God's plan is that sowing and 
reaping shall be simultaneous, that a man shall 
sow with one hand and reap with the other. Seed- 
time and harvest need not be widely separated. 
More and more, pastors are coming to be their 
own evangelists. Teachers and superintendents 
are coming to be their own revivalists. The 
workers who sow are at the same time quietly 
and persistently reaping. The Sunday school is 
the fruitful evangelistic opportunity. 



WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST 27 

The evangelism of tomorrow is to find here its 
mighty field. The Sunday school holds a first 
place of influence in the incoming tides of child- 
life, while through its adult class movement and 
its home department it is reaching and influenc- 
ing adult life as no other agency can hope to do. 
Because the Sunday school is a preeminent evan- 
gelistic agency and opportunity, Sunday school 
workers ought to study the principles and 
methods of evangelism. 

Winning to Christ is an art, the finest of the 
fine arts, which has its own lazvs and which 
requires intelligent effort. If the impression has 
prevailed that piety and fervor alone are essential, 
we may without depreciating these prime essen- 
tials, insist that no other art more imperatively 
calls for equipment and skill. It is true that any 
fervent soul may accomplish wonders here, but 
that soul might with skill won by training wield 
a far wider and safer influence in soul-winning. 
Here as elsewhere in Christian service, even a 
little instruction, starting aright and giving some 
guidance as to method and intelligent effort 
must be helpful. 

It is impossible to estimate the harm done by 
untrained and misguided workers. The soul is 
peculiarly sensitive and impressionable in those 
days when it seeks through conviction and con- 
fession of sin to know its Lord. Error planted, 



28 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



wrong bias or direction given, in that critical time 
may bear an evil harvest in all after years. 

Winning to Christ leads us into the Holy of 
Holies of the spiritual life. It brings us to stand 
close beneath the shadow of the cross and to 
breathe its holy atmosphere. Superintendents 
and teachers who are winning Christ, know a 
high joy which enables them to surmount ob- 
stacles and overcome discouragements. The pur- 
pose and the effort to win to Christ lend a halo 
of glory to our tasks and makes service worth 
while. It pulls all of our Sunday school work 
up to a high plane. With only a half hour in the 
whole week in which to teach, the Sunday school 
teacher can never find his chief satisfaction in 
the amount of concrete information which he 
may be able to impart to his pupils. His real 
comfort will be in the assurance that the informa- 
tion he does impart may under the blessing of 
the divine Spirit be vital to temporal and spiritual 
welfare and that the truth he imparts may bless 
to all eternity. 

A vision of the meaning of evangelism and an 
experience of the joys which come from winning 
the lost would transform many a Sunday school. 
Is it difficult to find among the great numbers of 
cultivated men and women in our churches those 
who will teach and bear the burdens of the Sun- 
day school? Do those who teach lack joyful and 
triumphant zeal? Let the fires of evangelism 



WHY STUDY WINNING TO CHRIST 29 

burn, let the community be pervaded by a quiet, 
gracious revival, let the workers get a vision of 
the meaning and matchless dignity of what we 
are doing as these things touch life and destiny, 
and all will be changed. Great hearts are drawn 
to great tasks; the higher and nobler the tasks 
we have in hand, the more surely will lofty spirits 
be inspired to undertake them. 

RESTATEMENT. 

Why Study Winning to Christ f 

I. This task is supreme and supremely glorious. 
II. The place which "Winning to Christ" holds in the 
Sunday school. 

III. The place which the Sunday school holds in "Win- 
ning to Christ.'* 

IV. Winning to Christ is an art, which, having its own 

laws, requires intelligent effort. 

V. Winning to Christ brings us into the Holy of 

Holies of all spiritual service. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Name five reasons why Christian workers should 
study "Winning to Christ." 

Why is this task supreme? Why is it glorious? 

What place does "Winning to Christ" hold in the 
Sunday school? Why? 

Name some other things which may be given an 
undue emphasis as compared with "Winning to Christ." 



30 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Name some ways in which the importance of ''Win- 
ning to Christ" is being recognized. 

What of the place which the Sunday school holds in 
"Winning to Christ" ? 

Is the day of the revival passing? What of the 
transfer of emphasis from the revival to education? 

What deduction is drawn from the fact that "Winning 
to Christ" is an art? 

Discuss the statement that "Winning to Christ" leads 
us into the Holy of Holies. What will a right convic- 
tion here do for Sunday school workers? 



III. 

CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION. 

WINNING TO CHRIST! If we are to win 
to Christ we must have a clear conception 
of the human nature which we are to win; we 
must know its natural moral and spiritual con- 
dition, its state before God and its attitude toward 
God. The natural heart, what is its native atti- 
tude toward God, what does it require in order 
to enter into God's kingdom? Wrong thinking 
here will unhinge and vitiate all of our efforts to 
win. Right thinking at this point furnishes a safe 
basis for all future building. 

Broadly speaking there are two theories con- 
cerning the child's natural condition and state. 
These theories divide the Christian world into 
two great camps. We may call these the culture 
theory and the conversion theory. 

I. The culture theory. This theory denies the 
necessity of conversion and puts forward culture 
as the supreme need, the one thing essential, in 
the bringing of the life to a right relation to God. 
The advocates of the culture theory differ widely 
among themselves, four types being worthy of 
mention. 

(i ) Some deny the necessity of conversion and 
regeneration. Human nature, they say, is not 

(31) 



32 WINNING TO CHRIST 

naturally sinful and tainted ; rather it is essentially 
holy and God-like. The child is by nature God's 
child ; he is from birth in the kingdom of God. He 
does not need to be brought into the kingdom ; he 
requires to be kept from growing or going out of 
the kingdom. He is by nature rightly related to 
Christ, and so far from needing to be converted 
to Christ, our one concern should be to keep him 
from being converted from Christ. "Conversion 
is an event which ought not to be necessary in 
the conscious life of any human being." 

A minister went to preach in a church in one 
of our cities on Sunday morning. Being present 
in the Sunday school, he was asked to speak to 
the junior department with its large number of 
boys and girls from nine to twelve years of age. 
He ventured to say a simple word about early 
coming to Christ and pleaded that the children 
should give their hearts in trust and obedience to 
the Saviour. He felt even while he was speaking 
that the superintendent did not sympathize with 
his word. As the visitor sat down the superin- 
tendent arose and said, 'T regret that I cannot 
say Amen' to the message of our friend. You 
boys and girls are the children of the church; 
you were not born in the slum's. You are by 
nature God's children; you were born in the 
kingdom of God. You do not need a new heart." 

A little girl, under conviction for sin, and sor- 
rowfully seeking the Saviour, was told by her 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 33 

grandmother that she could join the church when 
she "became good enough." Clearly the grand- 
mother had no thought of regeneration, a new 
heart through the birth from above, and was only 
thinking of culture and effort as bringing the 
child to be ''good enough'' to unite with the 
church. 

(2) Yet others insist that the child receives 
a new heart in the act of baptism. In the direc- 
tions for the administration of the ordinance of 
baptism to infants, certain official guide-books 
urge prayer to God, ''that through his ordinance, 
of his bounteous mercy he will grant to the child 
that which by nature he cannot have." In the 
words which are to be uttered after the child's 
baptism it is assumed that having been baptized 
the child is now regenerated. 

(3) But if children are regenerated in connec- 
tion with baptism, this makes their salvation 
dependent on the obedience of their parents, and 
shuts out all children whose parents refuse or 
neglect to have them baptized, as well as all 
heathen children. This consideration has driven 
some to the position that God regenerates every 
child at birth. Compelled to recognize the fact of 
inherent sin in the natural heart, these maintain 
that by an act of sovereign mercy God regen- 
erates every child in the hour of its birth. 

(4) Yet others insist that regeneration is a 
gradual process accomplished by the Spirit of 

3 



34 WINNING TO CHRIST 

God in connection with culture. "But before the 
years of full responsibility there is a religious 
change possible, and in many cases actual, which 
in a limited sense is worthy to be called conver- 
sion. It is the gradual change in the nature of 
the child, wrought directly by the Spirit of God 
in cooperation with prayerful, intelligent, per- 
sistent training on the part of parents and others 
whereby the tendency of the depraved nature 
is overcome and supplanted by a tendency to that 
which is good'' {Wm, George Koons), 

2. The conversion theory. This theory de- 
clares that all children are ''in a state of sin, need 
to be regenerated and can only be saved through 
personal faith in Christ." Conversion is the 
human 'side of that change of heart which when 
viewed from God's side is called regeneration. 
Conversion is the soul's turning to God from sin. 

If we will know the child's state and his real 
condition before God, we must bring the child 
into the clear light of God's holiness and study 
his nature as God has set it forth in his Word. 
To the law and the testimony! What saith the 
Word? 

'The carnal (natural) mind is enmity against 
God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). 

"Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin 
did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51: 5). 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 35 

'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" 
(John 3:6). 

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, except one be born anew, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God'' (John 3:3). 

"Born anew," not "altered," "influenced," "re- 
invigorated," "reformed;!' but a new beginning, 
a new stamp of character, a new family likeness 
to God and to his children (A. H. Strong). 

Such is the explicit testimony of Scripture as 
to the natural state. What says the voice of 
conscience and of experience? When we look 
into the depths of our own hearts and study our 
own experiences as we came through the years 
of childhood, surely the voice of conscience and 
of experience corroborates the word of Scripture. 
Whatever comes out naturally and inevitably in 
the oak must be somehow in the acorn. What- 
ever naturally and inevitably comes out in the 
man must be somehow in the child. Spiritual 
depravity, insubordination, unholiness, always 
appear in the man. These must, therefore, be 
somehow in the child. 

The voice of Scripture agrees with the voice of 
conscience and experience and these agree with 
the witness of observation, all declaring that 
human nature, whether in the child or adult, is 
fallen and marred and requires the regenerating 
grace of God. 



36 WINNING TO CHRIST 

To sum up and for the sake of further clear- 
ness, we may lay down the following proposi- 
tions : 

The supreme need is not Preservation. The 
idea is going the rounds, and is somehow insist- 
ent, that the only evangelism needed is preserva- 
tion. 

A primary department in a certain Sunday 
school is beautiful and beautifully fitted. The 
superintendent walks out of the department and 
meets the minister, who says, 'What of your 
department?" The superintendent replies, "All 
is well, only I am sick and tired of having 
visitors say. This is all beautiful, but what of the 
change of heart; have your children experienced 
a change of heart ?' " She stamped her foot im- 
patiently and said, ''My children are pure and 
holy ; they do not need a change of heart." The 
minister said, "You are altogether right. Let us 
pray together that they may never have a change 
of heart, that they may be always as they are 
now, pure and holy." 

If we have been to the Cross, whether we came 
as children or as adults, there is little need to 
interpose objections to this theory. We who 
know Christ in his atoning death, who through 
an experience of grace have tasted the sweets of 
pardoning love and have known the joy of 'sin 
forgiven, know that preservation is not sufficient. 
This theory of preservation obscures God's holi- 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 37 

ness and denies sin. It denies the necessity of 
the atonement and does away with the regener- 
ating work of the Holy Spirit. Alas for our poor 
fallen nature^ something more is needed than 
preservation ! 

It may be proper to say in passing that the 
evangelism for which we plead is not versus 
preservation. While we insist that preservation 
is not alone sufficient, we w^ould not underesti- 
mate its power and value in the molding of 
life and in winning to Christ. So far from there 
being antagonism between conversion and preser- 
vation, they are both essential and are both inter- 
dependent. Faithful and careful preservation 
from ways and habits of evil paves the way for 
early conversion, while early conversion is essen- 
tial to further preservation. 

The supreme need is not Culture. There are 
those who would have us believe that the human 
heart is ''a green apple which only needs careful 
and favorable cultivation for its proper ripening.'" 
The Scriptures already adduced, and surely the 
witness of our own experience^ declare that the 
natural heart is an apple with a worm at the core 
and that nothing but the blood of Jesus can 
destroy that worm and make that nature holy. 
Likewise, there are those who would have us 
believe that human nature is a seed which needs 
only to be planted and nurtured in order to pro- 
duce ripened fruit. Alas we know that human 



38 WINNING TO CHRIST 

nature is a damaged seed and that which grows 
from it will, like itself, inevitably be poor and 
stunted (A. H. Strong). 

''It is not evolution that is needed, but involu- 
tion and revolution : involution, the communica- 
tion of a new life, and revolution, the change of 
direction resulting from that life." 

Two notable examples in the New Testament 
illustrate the futility and insufficiency of culture. 
Nicodemus was as finished a moral specimen as 
the world ever saw. Culture and education had 
done for him their best. To this man, the finished 
product of culture, Jesus said, ''Ye must be born 
again. '^ The rich young ruler was another fin- 
ished product of culture, so fair and so fine that 
when Jesus looked upon him. He loved him. To 
this finished specimen of culture Jesus said, "One 
thing thou lackest/' and what he lacked was not 
to 'sell his goods, but was to accept and follow 
Jesus. Because his goods stood between him and 
Jesus, he was commanded to sell his goods. 

The advocates of these two theories, preserva- 
tion and culture, rely largely upon one passage 
of Scripture which passage they utterly misin- 
terpret, "Verily, I say unto you, except ye be 
converted and become as a little child, ye cannot 
enter the kingdom of heaven.'^ What Jesus has 
in mind is not the innate and essential nature of 
the child, but rather the child's predominant 
characteristic, its trust, dependence, confidence. 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 39 

Except ye convert and become in spirit as a little 
child, trustful and dependent, ye cannot enter the 
kingdom of heaven. 

It may be well to say in passing, that while 
the evangelism for which we plead and which the 
child needs is not culture, that it is yet not versus 
culture. Between this evangelism and any kind 
of Christian culture or training there is no possi- 
ble antagonism. Let culture do its best. This 
culture is, I had almost said, essential to evan- 
gelism. It makes its own contribution to evan- 
gelism. It determines the quality of the material 
with which evangelism shall deal, while culture 
after evangelism determines what shall be the 
fruit 0)f evangelism. 

The supreme need is not Reformation. ''Re- 
formation is plucking bitter apples from a tree, 
and in their place tying good apple's with a string. 
Reformation will not suffice. Reformation with- 
out evangelism is forever impossible. It is regen- 
eration or degradation. Regeneration, the begin- 
ning of an upward movement by power not man's 
own ; or degradation, the continuance and increase 
of a downward movement that can end only in 
ruin. Much is said about the descent of man. 
I believe in the descent of man, not from the 
brute, but to the brute. I do not believe that 
human nature comes from the brute creation, 
but I am bound to believe that apart from the 



40 WIXXIXG TO CHRIST 

restraining influences of the Holy Spirit it tends 

constantly to the brute creation" {Dr. A. H. 
Strong). 

The evangelism for which we plead is, of 
course, not versus reformation. Indeed, there 
can be no reformation without such evangelism, 
and the evangelism for which we plead will in- 
evitably produce reformation. In a word, in 
this old gospel of atonement by blood there is 
embraced all that is in modem theories and in- 
comparably more. These three theories, preser- 
vation, culture, reformation, constitute one fam- 
ily. AU start upon the idea that the soul is by 
nature holy, and that the child is by nature a 
member of God's kingdom. Preservation under- 
takes to keep him so. Culture undertakes to 
undo the shortcomings of preser^'ation and cul- 
ture and to restore the soul when it is fallen. To 
you who have been to the Cross, who beHeve 
in the atonement and know the birth of the Holy 
Spirit, it is not necessar\- that we should stay to 
further refute these theories. 

According to the testimony of Scripture and 
the voice of experience, the spiritual need of the 
child may be stated in one word — Christ. God, 
who knows human nature, its strength, its weak- 
ness, its need, '^'sent forth his Son, made of a 
woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons.'' 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 41 

We need Christ as Friend. This will be the 
earliest normal approach of the child to the Sa- 
viour. The child may very early learn to think 
of Jesus as a loving, protecting, providing friend. 
He may be trained to recognize that among the 
loving friends who surround him there is the 
invisible Friend in whom he can repose confi- 
dence and whom he can love and trust. Among 
all his friends, Jesus ought to be held up as the 
truest, the most faithful, the most loving. As 
love and friendship in these early years grow in 
response to love and friendship manifested by 
others, so the graces and gifts and goodness of 
the Lord may be held constantly before the child. 
The witness of children is the witness of all be- 
lievers, 'We love him because he first loved us." 

As the years pass, the child's conception of 
Jesus as his chief and best friend may grow, and 
ought to grow. If the years bring sunshine and 
blessing, the child should be brought to see in 
these the smile and mercy of his Friend in 
heaven. If sorrow befalls, the season of darkness 
and distress will afiford rare opportunity to 
sweeten and deepen the sense of the friendship 
of Jesus. In childhood perplexities, amid childish 
cares, the wise parent and teacher can strengthen 
the cords which bind the child heart to his best 
Friend. In all the after years this sense of con- 
fident reliance, of easy friendship, will constitute 
the heart and center of Christian living. 



42 WINNING TO CHRIST 

We need Christ as Teacher. It is of the 
child's nature and Hfe to expect and accept teach- 
ing; the teacher satisfies his mental and spiritual 
hunger. His teachers stand clo'se to his heart 
and entwine themselves deeply in his affections. 
These teachers fail in their highest privilege if 
they do not bring the child to look upon Jesus as 
his chief Teacher. Sitting, themselves, at the 
Master's feet and them'selves looking to him as 
Teacher, they may bring the child from his 
earliest years to accept and regard Jesus as the 
preeminent Teacher. 

Along his whole pathway he will need the light- 
giving, the problem-solving Teacher. Never will 
this need be more real or more keenly felt than 
through the years of childhood and youth. The 
child is a stranger in a strange world ; he is push- 
ing out along paths not hitherto trod and into 
fields he has not known before. He is often 
oppressed with a sense of his own ignorance, and 
more, perhaps, than we realize he craves and wel- 
comes the light and guidance which the Teacher 
is so well able to impart. The soul which in the 
early years of life learns to sit at the feet of 
Jesus and look faithfully and lovingly to him as 
Teacher, is the 'soul which through life easily and 
naturally maintains the abiding attitude of 
learner at his feet. 

We need Christ as Master or Lord. There 
inheres in every heart a sense of need and depend- 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 43 

ence which prompts desire for the firm hand of 
mastery and lordship. The soul feels instinctively 
its need for some authority to control and direct. 
While this sense of need deepens with advancing 
years and enlarging experience, it is yet felt 
in these early years. 

The teacher who himself cheerfully and fully 
accepts the lordship of Jesus and submits in all 
things to his authority will not find it difficult to 
bring the child to a similar attitude of obedience 
and submission. Those early years, when mind 
and heart so naturally demand and accept author- 
ity, furnish the golden season for the culture of 
a life habit and attitude of reverent submission 
to divine authority. Such attitude thus early 
brought about constitutes the sure basis for en- 
during character and worthy service. 

Preeminently we need Christ as Saviour. 
There is no need to write hard things against 
the child, no need to stress the child's innate 
sinfulness to the obscuring of his virtues and 
winsomeness, in order to show that he needs a 
Saviour. Sin rs incompleteness and imperfec- 
tion, quite as much as it is vileness or vicious- 
ness. It inheres in the soul and is a state or 
attitude as well as an act or word. The child is 
incomplete and imperfect; he is essentially un- 
holy ; he ''comes short of the glory of God.'' He 
needs a Saviour mighty to save. 



44 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



RESTATEMENT. 



11. 



Theories Coxcerxixg the Natur.\l State. 

1. The Culture Theory. 

(i) Denial of conversion and regeneration. 

(2) Regeneration at birth, 

(3) Regeneration through baptism. 

(4) Regeneration through culture. 

2. The Conversion Theory. 

Children are ''in a state of sin, need to be re- 
generated and can only be saved through per- 
sonal faith in Christ." 

(i) Witness of Scripture. 

(2) Voice of Conscience. 

(3) Testimony of Experience. 

The Supreme Xeed. 

1. Is not — 

(i) Preservation. 

(2) Culture. 

(3) Reformation. 

2. Is Christ. 

(i) As Friend. 

(2) As Teacher. 

(3) As Lord. 

(4) As Saviour. 



To Guide and Test Study. 

What is declared to be essential in any effort to win 
to Christ? 

What two theories concerning the natural state are 
named? 



CULTURE VERSUS CONVERSION 45 

State the culture theory. What three types are dis- 
cussed? 

State the conversion theory. Quote three passages of 
Scripture in support of this theory. What as to the 
witness of conscience and observation? 

Show that preservation is not the child's supreme 
need. Is evangelism versus preservation? 

Demonstrate by two Scripture examples that culture 
alone is not sufficient. 

What is meant by the statement, ''It is regeneration 
or degradation.'* 

What is said to be the earliest normal approach to 
Christ? What duty grows out of this? 

What of our need of Jesus as Teacher? 

Do we need Jesus as Lord? Why? 

Why do we need a Saviour? Quote two verses which 
declare that Jesus is Saviour. 



IV. 

THE NATURAL MORAL STATE. 

ARIGHT conception and a real conviction 
regarding the moral state to which we 
come by nature is essential to right thinking con- 
cerning the atonement, and hence is vital in all 
soul-winning effort. We venture to raise some 
questions which will lead us to the heart of this 
whole matter. 

'Ts the child by nature religious?" We may 
save confusion here by using phrases with care, 
and by clearly defining the phrases we use. Let 
us distinguish between natural religion and re- 
vealed Christianity, between being in some nat- 
ural sense religious and being in a divine sense 
a spiritual believer in the atoning Saviour. 

Certainly the child has in some natural sense 
a religious nature. This is to say that he has in- 
stinct and capacity for God. In this capacity to 
know and worship God man stands distinct from 
all other creatures. But this is by no means to 
say that the child is by nature possessed of the 
spiritual religion which the New Testament pro- 
vides for and demands. 

The child may be by nature in some sense 
religious, but he is not naturally Christian. Be- 

(46) 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 47 

cause he is religious he may become Christian. 
The Creator planted so deep in the heart of man 
the instinct to worship it 'seems never to have 
been really annihilated. No people have yet been 
found who do not retain traces of this religious 
instinct originally planted in the race. Plutarch 
is quoted as saying, "If you will take the trouble 
to travel through the world, you will find towns 
and cities without walls, without letters, without 
kings, without houses, without wealth, without 
theatres, but there was never seen by any man 
any without temple or gods." 

The child intuitively believes in a cause for 
every effect, and has thus the basis for belief in 
a great first cause. The conviction of continuing 
life, immortality, seems to be instinctive. The 
child seems to take it for granted that he and 
others will live on forever. Unless he is other- 
wise educated or influenced, he will grow to take 
it for granted that he is to live on after this life. 
There seems also to be at least in some dim sense, 
a native consciousness of guilt and a native im- 
pulse to seek atonement and propitiation. Made 
originally in the likeness and image of God, man 
has not, though fallen and marred by sin, wholly 
lost traces of his high origin. 

It is possible to make quite too much of this 
natural religion. It is perilous to confuse this 
original religious nature with the spiritual life 
which can alone be imparted by the Holy Spirit. 



48 WINNING TO CHRIST 

We are not concerned so much about what the 
child is by nature as we are concerned about what 
he must be by grace in order to be saved from 
sin and to attain the high possibiUties of his 
nature. Child nature, because it is not so hard- 
ened by experiences of sin, responds more readily 
to the appeal of the Christ nature. 

If failing to distingviish between being in some 
natural original sense religious and being new 
creatures, spiritual believers, we accept this nat- 
ural religion as final and sufficient and fail to 
bring the child to Christ the Saviour, we fatally 
miss our opportunity and do the child eternal 
wrong. 

''Is the child by nature in the kingdom of 
God?" Here again confusion results from a 
loose use of terms. There is a natural kingdom 
of God and there is a spiritual kingdom of God. 
There is a sense in which God as king reigns 
over all men and all things. The Psalmist de- 
clares, 'Thy kingdom ruleth over all." God is 
declared to be King of kings, and Lord of lords. 
Certainly man, along with all created beings, is 
embraced in this kingship and kingdom of God. 

But higher and vastly different from this nat- 
ural kingdom is the spiritual kingdom of God, 
the kingdom to which Jesus referred when he 
said, "Except a man be born again he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." According to this 
word of our Lord, this spiritual kingdom of God 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 49 

consists of those who have been born again. In 
the nature of the case only such as by new birth 
have become partakers of the divine nature can 
have membership in this kingdom. It is writing 
no hard thing against the child to say that he does 
not belong to this kingdom. As we shall see a 
little later in these studies, the child is embraced 
in the provisions of this kingdom, and dying in 
infancy is saved from the consequences of sin. 

Those who maintain that the child is by nature 
in God's spiritual kingdom do not essay to quote 
much Scripture in proof of their contention. Two 
passages are chiefly relied on for this purpose. 
Matthew i8: 3, ''Verily, I say unto you, except 
ye be converted and become as little children, ye 
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." The 
context indicates that the disciples had engaged 
in a controversy as to who should be greatest. 
They bring that question to the Lord. He takes 
a little child and sets him in the midst, saying, 
"Except ye turn and become as little children, ye 
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven'' (R. V.). Pride, arrogance, ambition, 
are unthinkable in the kingdom of heaven and 
must be exchanged for the childlike character. 
This is the content of our Lord's teaching in 
this passage. The child and his spiritual state 
are not in mind. Rather, certain ungracious 
qualities are reproved and childlike characteris- 
tics are commended. 
4 



50 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



Another passage sometimes quoted in this con- 
nection is Mark lo : 14, ''Suffer the Httle children 
to come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such 
is the kingdom of God." Here, again, an un- 
gracious spirit had been manifested on the part 
of the disciples in rebuking those who would 
bring little children to Jesus, and here also our 
Lord declares that members of his kingdom must 
be childlike. ''Of such,'' or as in the Revised 
V^'ersion, "To such,'' people who have and who 
maintain the childlike spirit — "is the kingdom of 
God." Those who are in his kingdom are like 
children in some elements of character and atti- 
tude. 

"Is the child God's childr 

Here, also, we do well to choose our phrases 
with care, lest we fall into error. In some nat- 
ural sense the child may be regarded as God's 
child. God gave it life and God watches over and 
preserves its life. Jesus' loving attitude toward 
children may sufficiently indicate and attest God's 
love and gracious care for the child. If, during 
these early years, there shall be an increasingly 
clear sense of God's loving presence and care, 
this will prepare the way for an easy and early 
acceptance of Jesus as Saviour. 

But the child is not by nature God's child in 
any spiritual New Testament sense. "Ye were 
by nature children of wrath even as others." The 
child which from his birth has been the object 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 51 

of God's care and blessing, becomes God's child 
when by the birth from above he is made par- 
taker of the divine nature. ''And you did he 
make alive, when ye were dead through your 
trespasses and 'sins'' (Eph. 2:1). ''Of his own 
will brought he us forth by the word of truth" 
(James i : 18). "If any man is in Christ, he is 
a new creature" — margin — "there is a 'new crea- 
tion' " (2 Cor. 5: 17). 

The prodigal son in the well-known parable 
represents the sinner. This fact is sometimes 
held up to show that as the wayward son was a 
son still, so the sinner is still God's child. Cer- 
tainly there was a relationship between the father 
and the absent boy, but how slight and poor that 
relationship ! The son had renounced the rela- 
tionship, had gone into a "far country," and was 
wasting his patrimony in "riotous living." When 
he returned, the father declared that he had been 
"dead," and further that he was "lost." The 
parable may be taken as indicating that between 
the sinner and God there is some natural rela- 
tionship which sin has marred and suspended. 
Surely there is lying on the face of the story the 
teaching that the sinner is dead and must be 
brought to life, is lost and must be found, that 
he is in no high and spiritual sense God's son. 

All efforts in evangelism must in the end base 
themselves on a conviction of the depth and 
reality of the changes wrought in the inner life 



oz 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



by the Spirit through conversion, the distance 
and the difference between what is by nature 
and what must be by grace. This change may 
be clearly seen in the followins: contrasts : 



The Sinner. 

''Dead.-'' 

''Dead in Tresspasses." 
"Dead in Sins." 
'-'Lost." 

^'Children of Wrath.'' 
''Children of disobedi- 
ence." 
''Children of the Flesh." 
"Carnal." 
"Far Off." 
"Aliens and Strangers." 

"Born of the Flesh." 
"Condemned Already." 



"Enmity Against God.' 



The Believer. 

'Alive Again." 

'Raised Up." 

'Quickened." 

'Found." 

'Sons of God.'' 

"Partakers of the Di- 
vine Nature." 

'Children of God." 

'Spiritual." 

'Made Nigh." 

"Fellow Citizens with 
the Saints." 

"Bom of the Spirit." 

'Xow Xo Condemna- 
tion." 

"]\Iv Friends.'' 



"Is the Child saved?" 

Let us say that child is safe through the provi- 
sions of grace, rather than that the child is saved. 
We are pleased to believe and do believe with 
practically all Christians that those who die in 
infancy are "safe in the arms of Tesus." The 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 53 

righteous obedience of Jesus, the second Adam, 
we may well believe, stands over against any 
depravity or unholiness which have come through 
the sin of the first Adam. We cannot believe 
that by inherent merit or by holiness of his own 
the child enters the presence of God and is ac- 
cepted of him without the cleansing of the blood 
of Jesus. Hence we prefer to say that in infancy 
the child is safe and that he will be saved when 
he comes to accountable years if he trusts Jesus 
as Saviour. 

Dr. A. H. Strong sets this matter in such clear 
light we venture to quote the following: 

(i) 'Infants are in a state of sin, need to be 
regenerated and can only be saved through 
Christ. 

(2) ''Yet as compared with those who have 
personally transgressed, they are recognized as 
possessed of a relative innocence, and of a sub- 
missiveness and trustfulness, which may serve to 
illustrate the graces of Christian character. 

(3) "For this reason they are objects of special 
divine compassion and care, and through the 
grace of Christ are certain of salvation. 

(4) "The description of God's merciful provi- 
sion as coextensive with the ruin of the Fall also 
lead us to believe that those who die in infancy 
receive salvation through Christ as certainly as 
they inherit sin from Adam. 



54 WINNING TO CHRIST 

(5) 'The condition of salvation for adults is 
personal faith. Infants are incapable of ful- 
filling this condition. Since Christ has died for 
all, we have reason to believe that provision is 
made for their reception of Christ in some way. 

(6) ''Since there is no evidence that children 
dying in infancy are regenerated prior to death, 
either with or without the use of external means, 
it seems most probable that the work of regenera- 
tion may be performed by the Spirit in connection 
with the infant's first view of Christ in the other 
world. As the remains of natural depravity are 
eradicated not by death, but at death, through the 
sight of Christ and union with him, so the first 
moment of consciousness for the infant may be 
coincident with a view of Christ the Saviour 
which accomplishes the entire sanctification of its 
nature.'' 

A devout father standing beside the lifeless 
body of his two-year-old child was heard to say, 
"The blood of Jesus means more to me today than 
it ever meant before. That blood has cleansed 
my child from the taint of inherited depravity. 
When m.y child and I shall stand together before 
the throne in yonder eternity, we will join in the 
shout, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abun- 
dant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead.' '' 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 55 

If the child which in its unsoiled innocency is 
called away from earth must be regenerated and 
cleansed in order to enter the presence of God 
where it is to live forever with the holy angels 
and the unfallen hosts of God, how much more 
does the child need regeneration if he is to live 
and grow amid the sinful and blighting conditions 
of earth surrounded by imperfect and sinful 
creatures ! In all of this insistance that the child, 
however well-born, must be born again, that the 
child, however carefully preserved and trained, 
must be cleansed by the blood of Jesus, we do 
not write unduly hard things against the child, 
nor do we forget our Lord's attitude toward chil- 
dren. Jesus loved little children and delighted in 
them. They in turn instinctively loved and 
trusted Jesus. He put his hands upon them and 
bles'sed them. Associated with this word and 
act of blessing is the idea of pronouncing blessed. 
Our Lord in some sense pronounced encomium 
upon childhood. Moreover, Jesus used children 
as models to illustrate the character of the king- 
dom, ''Suffer the little children to come unto me 
and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom 
of God." Our fathers made much of ''total de- 
pravity.'' By this they meant not that the child 
is as bad as he can be, but that his every faculty 
is tainted by sin; that there is the germ of de- 
pravity in every child. The fact that the phrase 
was susceptible of misconception and required 



56 WINNING TO CHRIST 

always a word of explanation has caused it to 
be measurably discarded. 

The child has naturally many winsome and 
beautiful qualities, is apparently innocent and 
lovable, is capable of almost infinite development. 
After all is said, however, we must conclude that 
the child, regardless of natural goodness and in- 
herited traits, needs the atonement of Jesus. The 
Scriptures declare this in the strongest terms. 
Our observation of child life enforces this. Our 
own experience and our knowledge of our own 
nature compels us to accept it. 

Two souls bow together at the altar and seek 
for mercy. One is a child of ten, reared in the 
home of a minister, breathing from his birth the 
atmosphere of hope and faith and trust; accus- 
tomed from the time he began to talk to kneel 
beside his miother and pray his evening prayer. 
He has now come under conviction for sin and 
is looking away to the Cross for mercy and par- 
don. At his side is a man of forty, a sinner 
hardened in guilt and fixed in unbelief. He, 
too, is by the Holy Spirit brought under convic- 
tion for sin and is laying hold on life eternal. 

See them as they kneel side by side, the com- 
paratively innocent child and the poor, hardened 
sinner. After all, the difference between them 
is a difference in degree rather than in kind. The 
same disease has fastened on this boy that has 
blighted the man, the dread disease, sin. The boy 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 57 

must be saved through repentance and faith and 
by the divine Spirit, just the same as the man. 
As they stand together now rejoicing in a Sa- 
viour's pardoning love, they can sing together: 

* 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, 
That saved a wretch like me. 
I once was lost, but now am found. 
Was blind, but now I see.'' 

The child realizes that he was a wretch in pos- 
sibility and feels himself doubly indebted to the 
goodness of God in that he is saved and may be 
kept from the depths which apart from grace are 
inevitable to him. When the two shall stand 
together yonder at the throne and the multitudes 
shall cry, ''Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy 
name give glory/' the child-convert can join as 
heartily as the man who was snatched as a brand 
from the burning. 

Let this child-convert thus saved and thus con- 
sciously dependent on the blood of Jesus and his 
atonement stand side by side with the imaginary 
child of whom we are often told that he was born 
as God's child, and therefore requires no blood 
of Jesus and no new birth. What as to the prob- 
able types of life and character which these two 
will develop ? The one is indebted to Jesus and his 
•suffering atonement for all that he is or ever can 
hope to be. With the passing years, the vision 



58 WINNING TO CHRIST 

and sense of this indebtedness grows and deepens. 
This sense of grateful obligation tinges the whole 
life and affects the whole character. 

It is not so with the other. He is taught that 
he was born in the kingdom; he owes no such 
debt of gratitude. He has no such reason or 
motive for putting his life on the altar for Christ. 
Is it difficult to surmise the results in character? 
Will 'such an one be willing to stand in the 
breach and make his life an offering to God? 
As it is easy to estimate the difference between 
two such individuals, so must it be easy to con- 
ceive the difference in the community life which 
must result from acceptance of the one or the 
other of these theories. 

RESTATEMENT. 
The Natural Moral State. 

I. Is the Child Religious? 

1. Has capacity for religion. 

2. No, he is not Christian. 

II. Is the Child in the Kingdom of God? 

1. In the natural kingdom (Psalm 103: 19). 

2. No, not in the Spiritual kingdom (John 

3: 3). 
III. Is the Child God's Child? 

1. In some natural sense. 

2. No, not in spiritual and New Testament 

sense. 



I 



THE NATURAL MORAL STATE 59 

IV. Is the Child Saved? 

1. Yes, safe in infancy through Christ. 

2. No, not "saved" except by personal faith. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Why is our belief concerning the natural moral state 
vital in soul-winning effort? 

In what sense may the child be said to be religious? 
What distinction requires to be made here? What of 
failure to make this distinction? 

Of whom does God's spiritual kingdom consist? 

Quote two passages sometimes relied on to prove 
that children naturally belong tO' the spiritual kingdom, 
and indicate what these passages really mean. 

How does the child become God's child? Quote two 
Scriptures in this connection. 

Are infants dying in infancy saved? How? When 
is the work of regeneration probably performed? 

What deduction is made from the necessity of re- 
generation on the part of the child who dies in in- 
fancy ? 

What is your own opinion as regards the position 
stated relative to the needs of the "child of ten'' and 
the "man of forty" ? 



V. 



SOME REQUISITES IN WINNING TO 
CHRIST. 

THE foundations for conversion should be 
laid in the early years in the home. It is 
good to believe that many Christian homes are 
busy laying these foundations. In all cases, 
however, the fires on the family altar should be 
kindled and kept burning by the fires of evan- 
gelistic zeal which burn on the altar in the Sun- 
day school and the church. We now consider 
some requisites in the matter of winning to our 
Lord. 

A first requisite is to create an atmosphere for 
such winning. In all matters of life and growth 
we are coming more and more to value the fine 
power of atmosphere. Certainly in the realm of 
evangelism and in all matters of spiritual life 
and growth it is difficult to estimate the power 
and meaning of atmosphere. 

There are communities in which it is fairly 
impossible to offer Christ in simple and confident 
fashion. The most zealous evangelistic spirit is 
quenched and repelled by the iciness which pre- 
vails. In other communities it is difficult to with- 
hold the evangelistic note. A worker recently 
took part in a great Sunday school occasion. 
(60) 



SOME REQUISITES 61 

Finding the atmosphere 'strangely and clearly 
favorable to evangelism, he set aside his prepared 
message and brought a simple appeal and invita- 
tion to accept Christ. Seventeen responded, and 
all were shortly afterwards baptized into the fel- 
lowship of the church. It was that fine intangible 
something which we call atmosphere and which 
every spiritual soul instinctively feels. 

It is not easy to create and maintain such at- 
mosphere. Not the pastor alone, nor yet the pas- 
tor, the superintendent and teachers, can create 
such spiritual conditions. All the estates of 
Israel must join hands and hearts and prayers 
for the high task. 

Another requisite is that we shall train for it. 

We must train the child for it. Whether the 
child will yield to Christ and publicly confess him 
depends much on what the child knows and what 
he is as the result of the training of the years. 
We will train the child for Christ. Because the 
child is some day to be Christ's witness and mes- 
senger we will patiently build into his life all 
possible elements of strength and beauty. 

We will train the child toward Christ. There 
is such a thing as preparing for conversion. The 
mother dealing with the little child will carefully 
train toward Christ; the beginner and primary 
teacher will catch up the process and carry it 
forward. 



62 WIXXIXG TO CHRIST 

We will train /// Christ. When we have 
brought the child to Christ, our task is only 
fairly begun. Then we are to nurture and culti- 
vate the child in all the deep and precious things 
of Jesus. There are certain habits which early 
fixed on the child make his conversion exceed- 
ingly fmprobable. These will be discussed in a 
later chapter. The worker who will win the 
child to Jesus will guard against these pernicious 
habits. He will seek to plant the holy habits of 
prayer, Bible-reading, church attendance. We 
will train the child with a view to his early con- 
version. 

We must train the teachers to this end. 

Whatever we want in the Sunday school we 
train for it. If we desire better teaching, we 
train for it. If evangelism is desirable and in a 
sense preeminent, why may we not train for it? 

A church community got this vision of train- 
ing for soul-winning. The officers and teachers 
were drawn together in a special class to study 
and train for evangelism. These workers as- 
sembled for a bles"sed hour each week in an upper 
room to pray and search the Scriptures. They 
used as a text-book Dr. Torrey's ''How to Bring 
Men to Christ.'' They studied together the 
various problems of practical evangelism, how to 
open the subject of personal religion, how to deal 
with various difficulties, how to lead various types 



SOME REQUISITES 63 

of character, and especially how to use the Word 
in dealing with the lost. 

When these seasons of prayerful preparation 
had continued for some weeks, a teacher came 
to the pastor just before the evening service, her 
face all lighted with joy, and said, 'Tastor, a 
year ago my little girl came home from church 
crushed beneath a burden of sin. I was as helpless 
as if I had been myself a child. I called you in and 
you took my crown. I remember well how easily 
and graciously you led my child to accept and 
trust the Saviour. This morning my little boy 
came home under conviction for sin. I detected 
instantly the Spirit's presence ; I had been study- 
ing in the soul-winner's class; I knew what to 
say and do. I took my child into the parlor alone, 
turned to Isaiah 53 : 1-6, and told the sweet, sim- 
ple story of Jesus and his atoning death. Then 
we prayed together, my child and I, and it was 
my joy to see him give his heart to the Saviour.'' 
Within three months after the inauguration of 
that training class, some forty had, through the 
efforts of the teachers, yielded to the Saviour. 
We will train the teachers for personal work in 
dealing with the lost. 

We must teach for this end. 

Our teaching, if our hearts are full of this 
spirit of evangelism, will be flavored by it. There 
will be the evangelistic note running through all 
of our instruction. But there is a certain vital 



64 WINNING TO CHRIST 

content of truth which is especially needful and 
which the teacher must see that the child shall 
come to know. This concerns the sinfulness of 
sin and the holiness of God, the atonement of 
Jesus wrought out in his sacrificial life and death, 
the duty of every soul to repent and believe the 
gospel. The teacher who knows these things by 
a deep and sweet experience, who has a blessed 
conviction concerning them and who teaches them 
to the young, will not find it difficult to win the 
pupils early to love and trust the Saviour. 

We must secure information with a view to 
zvinning to Christ. 

To secure full and accurate information is a 
first step toward intelligent effort. Indeed, a 
failure to seek such information convicts us of 
indifference and sloth. The jeweler who possesses 
rare and costly stones has each stone carefully 
livSted, and is able to tell at a moment's notice the 
history and worth of each of his gems. Can the 
pastor or teacher afford to be less accurately 
informed as regards the priceless lives the Father 
has entrusted to his care ? The process necessary 
to secure such information will awaken interest 
while the information itself will be a challenge 
to effort. 

A pastor led his forces along the lines outlined 
below, with the result that more than fifty pupils 
were converted in the regular services in three 
months. In the workers' council the pastor laid 



SOME REQUISITES 65 

it on the hearts ot the officers and teachers that 
the supreme thing in Sunday school work is to 
win to Christ. For a season every energy was 
to be bent toward this one thing. 

As preparatory and preliminary to the work in 
hand, full and accurate information was to be 
secured in all departments from the Juniors up. 
For the purpose of securing accurate informa- 
tion and at the same time giving notice in all 
circles of what was proposed the teachers were 
urged to visit the pupils and interview them per- 
sonally. As helpful for guidance and training, 
information was to be secured in all cases, 
whether the piipils were church members or not. 
Cards such as are here presented were prepared 
for this purpK)se : 

INFORMATION CARD. 

To Be Filled Out by the Teacher After a Visit to the 
Home. 

FORM FOR CHURCH MEMBERS. 

Name 

Address 

Grade and Department ? 

Date of Baptism ? 

Regular church attendant? 

Satisfactory evidence of growth in grace? 

Indications of call to ministry, missionary or special 

work ? 

Doing any specific religious work? 

State nature of such work. 

6 



66 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Religious condition of parents : 

O) Father. Is he a church member? . 

Where? 

(2) Mother. Is she a church member? 

Where? 

Add remarks, if desired, on other side of this card. 

, Teacher. 

Date.... 

INFORMATION CARD. 

To Be Filled Out by the Teacher After a Visit to the 
Home. 

FORM FOR THOSE NOT CHURCH MEMBERS. 

Name 

Address 

Grade and Department ? 

Regular church attendant ? 

Ever made profession ? 

Any evidence of interest ? 

Religious condition of parents : 

(i) Father. Is he a church member? . 

Where? 

(2) Mother. Is she a church member? 

Where? 

Add remarks, if desired, on other side of this card. 

, Teacher. 

Date 

When these cards had been filled out with the 
desired information, they v^ere assorted by de- 
partments and set before the workers' council. 
Announcement, in the Junior Department, for 
example, was made somewhat as follows : ''Here 



1 



SOME REQUISITES 67 

in these two sets of cards is complete informa- 
tion regarding our Junior Department. Here are 
twenty-six cards for Juniors who are already in 
the church. Here are forty-four cards which give 
information concerning Juniors who are not 
saved/' 

Statement was made in like manner in connec- 
tion with each department. Information about 
as follows was deduced: Forty- four Juniors, 
thirty-six Intermediates and nineteen Senior- 
adults were without Christ, a total of ninety-nine. 
Here, then, were the "possibilities'' of that school 
in the matter of soul-winning. All vagueness 
was dispelled, all uncertainty was gone. Copies 
of the cards were made and each teacher was 
given a full record of the lost in his class. All 
went in to work together, by personal approach, 
by appeals from the platform, in the Sunday 
school and church services, by every possible 
means, for the salvation of the ninety-nine who'se 
names were listed. From week to week, in spe- 
cial sessions of the workers' council, the cards 
were checked up and those who were being saved 
were taken from the list of the unconverted and 
added to the list of the saved. At the end of three 
months it was found that fifty-five had been bap- 
tized. 

In order to secure a definite committal to seek 
the Lord, the unconverted were asked to sign the 
following card : 



68 WINNING TO CHRIST 

SEEKING JESUS. 

Knowing myself to be a sinner in need of a Saviour, 
I desire to seek the Lord and become a Christian. I ask 
the prayers of the church that I may be saved. 

Name 

Grade (or age) 

Address 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3 : 16.) 

In order to keep accurate information and also 
to send the announcement to the home, pupils 
who accepted Christ were asked to sign in dupli- 
cate the following card, one copy being kept by 
the pastor, the other being taken to the parents : 

CONFESSION CARD. 

As a sinner lost and helpless, I take Jesus to be my 
Saviour from sin. I love him, and trust him as my 
Saviour and Lord. It is my desire to be baptized in his 
name and it is my purpose to obey and serve him. 

Name 

Grade (or age) 

Address 

As many as received him, to them gave he power to 
become the Sons of God, even to them that believed 
on his name. (John i : 12.) 

A well-known evangelist returned to his home 
after a season of absence. The day before his 
return a girl in her early teens had died and the 



SOME REQUISITES 69 

family desired this evangelist to conduct the 
services. He walked down to the home and, in 
conversation with the father, said, "I ought to 
know, but I am away from home so much ; was 
Mary a professed Christian?" The father said 
sadly, *1 do not take as much interest in those 
things as I ought ; her mother will know ; we will 
ask her/' When the mother came in, 'she con- 
fessed that she did not know, but the pastor was 
faithful and careful in these matters; he would 
know. The pastor was consulted. He did not 
recall, but the superintendent knew the young 
people well, and was always concerned for their 
spiritual welfare ; he would know. But the super- 
intendent did not know. He felt sure, however, 
that Mary's teacher would know. Alas, the 
teacher sorrowfully confessed, *T had long in- 
tended to speak to Mary about the Saviour. 
Somehow I neglected to do so, and now she is 
gone from us.'' Thus the young life had slipped 
through the hands of pastor and superintendent, 
of teacher and parents, and the soul had gone 
away to meet God without a single earnest effort 
to bring her to accept Jesus. 

The superintendent and pastor surely ought 
to know about every pupil, his spiritual condi- 
tion, whether he has manifested an interest, 
whether he has made a confession of Jesus, 
whether his parents are saved and whether his 
home influence is spiritually wholesome. Cards 



70 WINXIXG TO CHRIST 

suitable for securing this information may be 

had from the Sunday School Board, or they may 
be printed at small expense. 

There must be a strong conviction of the sin- 
fulness of sin and of th^ sufficiency of the aton- 
ing zi'ork of Jesus. One must know the plan of 
salvation, not only intellectually and not alone 
by an experience of grace, but by a present vivid 
knowing. The joy of this present knowledge 
must be real and keen. The Psalmist prays, "Re- 
store unto me the joy of thy salvation; and up- 
hold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach 
transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be 
converted unto thee.'' 

There must be a zi'orking knowledge of the 
Bible, This does not mean that the one who 
would win souls must needs be a finished Bible 
scholar. It dc-es mean that he must know how 
to use the Bible to show the fact and reality of 
sin, the sufficiency of the saving work of our 
Lord, and the dut\- of immediate acceptance of 
the offer of salvation. This content of Bible 
knowledge is set forth in a later discussion. 

We fnust live for this end. Surely this is a 
high purpose for which any teacher will do well 
to live. A teacher was urged to attend a place 
. of amusement concerning which there was some 
question. She declined, saying, *T am living for 
the salvation of my pupils. I should almost 
rather see them in their graves than to see them 



SOME REQUISITES 71 

caught and swept by tides of gayety and godless- 
ness." A few weeks later a revival was on, and 
that teacher had the joy of seeing twelve beauti- 
ful girls give themselves to the Saviour. She had 
lived to this end. 

We must have a deep yearning for lost 
souls. Jesus in all of his glorious ministry 
felt such compassion for the lost. His miracles 
of healing are marked by the throbbing desire 
to reach and save men's souls. Read again, 
and on your knees, his matchless parables in 
Luke 15, the lost coin, the lost sheep, the lost 
son. In the^ threefold picture rising constantly 
higher in dignity and pathos see inside the heart 
of the Son of man and catch his outlook <m 
human life. That fine, ceaseless zeal for the souls 
of men, that passionate grief for their sins, lends 
a nameless charm to his life and ministry. This 
constitutes its deathless power. 

This yearning compassion is essential in all 
soul-winning work. There is no substitute for 
it; not culture, nor Bible knowledge, nor zeal, 
can take its place. This heart-compassion is part 
of the price which the Christ pays that he may 
redeem us. It is the price we must pay if we 
will share in his glorious redeeming work. What 
a word is that word of Paul, *T fill up that which 
is lacking of the afflictions of Christ ;'' the suffer- 
ings 0(f Jesus go out for the lost, but they do not 
quite reach the lost until we '*fill up that which 



72 WINNING TO CHRIST 

is lacking'^ by standing with our crushed hearts 
between the suffering Saviour and the lost soul. 
It will be a sad exchange if through busy pres- 
sure and the effort to do many and great things 
we yield up this spirit of yearning, this heart- 
break for the lost. If now as we look into our 
hearts and back over our lives these fires are 
burning low, if we have exchanged the yearning 
note for the didactic note or for the note of 
authority, or for any other note, we will do well 
to go aside for a season, rekindle the fires and 
catch again the note of Jesus and Paul and of 
every successful winner of men since their day. 

RESTATEMENT. 

I. General Requisites. 

1. Create a favorable atmosphere. 

2. Train the child. 

3. Train teachers. 

4. Teach for this end. 

5. Secure information. 

11. Personal Requisites. 

1. Clear conviction of the plan of salvation. 

2. Working knowledge of the Bible. 

3. Must live for this end. 

4. Have yearning for the lost 



SOME REQUISITES 73 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Describe an atmosphere favorable to soul-winning. 

In what three ways are we to train the child as re- 
gards evangelism? 

Mention briefly the content of teaching which is 
especially needed in the effort to win to Christ. 

Suggest a plan for securing information concerning 
the lost. What as to the value of such information? 

What conviction is suggested as a special requisite 
to winning the lost? 

What kind of knowledge of the Bible is essential in 
soul-winning? 

What is your own estimate of the value of a con- 
sistent life in the matter of winning the lost? 

What can you say as to the necessity of compassion 
for the lost? 



VI. 

HABITS WHICH AID IN WINNING TO 
CHRIST. 

EARLY conversion and rounded development 
in the Christian life depend much on the 
habits formed in childhood. Whoever helps to 
guard young life against vicious habits and guides 
in forming certain right habits makes vital con- 
tribution to evangelism. The question as t o 
whether a given soul will early accept Christ 
and be saved is usually determined long before 
that life reaches the years of accountability. 

We mention briefly certain evil habits which 
may constitute effective barriers to coming to 
Christ. 

Reading light and evil literature may, besides 
other serious harm, be a barrier to prevent an 
early coming to Christ. Literature which unduly 
fascinates by portrayals of adventure, or by 
stories of morbid sentimentality, or by incidents 
of crime, dwarfs those finer qualities of heart 
and life upon which the appeal of Christ lays 
hold. Such reading has kept uncounted thou- 
ands of boys and girls from early conversion. 
As such literature is quite likely to be sought and 
read secretly and thus read proves most harm- 

(74) 



HABITS WHICH AID 75 

ful, those who deal with young Hfe will do well 
to take pains to know what habits of this kind 
are forming. 

All habits of profane swearing stand strongly 
in the way of efforts to win to Christ. Such 
habits have the inevitable effect of destroying 
reverence for God's nature, of weakening moral 
fiber, and of deadening the finer instincts of the 
heart. Here, as in the matter of reading hurtful 
literature, the habit is likely to be formed and in- 
dulged without the knowledge of parents and 
teachers. From many reliable witnesses who have 
varied touch with youthful life, there comes up 
the testimony that this evil of profane swearing is 
all too prevalent among the boys of our land, and 
that the evil is not confined to those who live in 
lowly or vicious homes. This evil habit may 
effectually counteract all effort to win to Christ. 

Habits of impurity may likewise stand in the 
way of efforts to win to Christ. It is well known 
that evils of this kind have to a remarkable de- 
gree the effect of dulling the spiritual nature and 
thus of preventing ready response to the call of 
the Christ. Pure human love is the basis of pure 
and strong love for God. The nature which has 
rendered itself incapable of holy and sweet human 
affection is thereby rendered incapable of the 
highest and purest love to God. 

The cigarette habit must also be mentioned as 
antagonistic to early conversion. The use of 



76 WINNING TO CHRIST 

cigarettes^, far more than is generally appreciated, 
dwarfs spiritual development and paralyzes the 
better impulses of the soul. It has been often 
asserted that the victim of this habit is seldom 
the subject of a genuine experience of grace. 
Certain it is that the probabilities of conversion 
are decreased by its baneful effects. 

Indulgence in questionable amusements fre- 
quently constitutes an effective barrier in the 
way of the conversion of our young people. The 
whole question of amusements is discussed in a 
later chapter. The matter is mentioned here for 
the sake of completeness and by reason of its 
vital bearing on the developments and choices of 
young life. Every soul-winner knows well that 
a chief difficulty to overcome in the effort to lead 
young people to Christ lies in the lines of ques- 
tionable amusements. 

We will now consider some habits which may 
directly contribute to an early decision for Christ 
and to fruitfulness in the Christian life. 

The. habit of reading wholesome religious lit- 
erature deserves to be named as vitally contribut- 
ing to an early and full surrender to Christ. 
Reference has already been made to the reading 
of evil literature as standing seriously in the way 
of conversion. In many ways right habits of 
reading and the reading of wholesome literature 
may lead toward Christ. In a negative way it 
preempts the heart and occupies the time, and 



HABITS WHICH AID 77 

thus saves from possible evil influences. In a 
positive way it brings high ideals and visions of 
achievement and habits of right thinking. The 
history of great religious movements, the biog- 
raphy of missionary leaders, the story of early 
Christian martyrs, these and the many similar 
types of reading so abundantly offered for our 
youth along with more distinctively evangelistic 
literature, must be helpful in preparing the way 
for early conversion. 

Daily Bible reading deserves alsoi to be men- 
tioned in this connection. The individual who 
has firmly fixed the custom of spending a few 
minutes with the open Bible each day will, when 
conviction comes, be likely to extend the usual 
time and linger with the open Book. He may 
be easily led to search the Scriptures with a view 
to find for himself the way of life. 

The habit of daily prayer besides the general 
blessing it brings in heart and life will make 
its own contribution to an early turning to the 
Lord. If daily there has been a quiet season 
alone with God, and this practice is firmly fixed, 
it will hardly be difficult to bring about a serious 
consideration of the spiritual claims of God's 
kingdom. 

Young children should be taught some simple 
forms of prayer which may be expanded with 
the years, and which should gradually give way 
to* the habit of offering original prayers. 



78 WINNING TO CHRIST 

For very small children, the little prayer, 
familiar to all Christian homes, is suitable : 

"Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep; 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take/' 

Petition for others will be added to the prayer 
by the thoughtful parent. When they are some- 
what older, they may be taught the model prayer, 
commonly known as the ''Lord's Prayer." As 
this prayer is given in our English Bible with 
some variations, it would be well if the Christian 
world might agree otn some one form for usual 
concerted use. It is suggested that our youth 
should be taught the following form as being 
now most generally used : 

''Our Father, who art in heaven. 
Hallowed be thy name; 
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, 
On earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread ; 
And forgive us our trespasses 
As we forgive tho«e who trespass against us; 
And lead us not into temptation. 
But deliver us from evil, 
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and 

the glory, 
Forever and ever. Amen !'' 



HABITS WHICH AID 79 

The little child in the early years of church 
attendance should be carefully instructed concern- 
ing the worships and guided in the matter of 
prayer. When he comes into the sanctuary there 
might be a pause, a hush, with the head bowed 
for a moiment of silent prayer. It would not be 
amiss for the child to memorize a bit of Scrip- 
ture to repeat at this time : 

''One thing have I desired of the Lord, 

That will I seek after; 

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord 

All the days of my life ; 

To behold the beauty of the Lord, 

And to inquire in his temple.'' 

—Psalm 27: 4. 

'The Lord is in his holy temple, 
Let all the earth keep silence before him.'' 

Habakkuk 2 : 20. 

No discussion of habits which contribute to 
evangelism would be complete without mention 
of church attendance. 

From the city and the country, from every part 
of this land and even from other lands, there 
comes up the report that our young people are 
forsaking attendance upon our regular services 
for worship. A popular and powerful pastor 
said recently, 'Tf a man will take his stand at 
the corner on which is the church in which I 



80 WINNING TO CHRIST 

minister, he can see any Sunday morning at a 
quarter to eleven two congregations, one com- 
ing and the other going." The absence of chil- 
dren in the worshiping congregation is becom- 
ing an increasing source of concern among 
Christian workers. 

The fine charm with which the Sunday school 
is invested, the persistence with which the pupil 
is sought and held, the careful adaptation of 
music and lessons and worship to the various 
stages of life, help to account for the enlarging 
attendance of young life upon the teaching serv- 
ice. The absence of these, together with the 
increasing tendency to order the regular wor- 
shiping services of the church without refer- 
ence to the needs of children and to meet the 
tastes and the needs of adults, must be held re- 
sponsible for any decline of interest on the part 
of children and young people in these services. 

Among the many solutions proposed for this 
serious problem we mention two, "the Junior 
congregation," and the plan of combining the 
teaching and preaching into one morning service. 

''The Junior Congregation/' This plan origi- 
nated in Philadelphia some twenty-five years ago, 
and has found favor in various sections. The 
young people up to sixteen years of age are called 
together after careful announcements and special 
effort to secure the largest possible attendance. 
Those who are willing have their names enrolled 



HABITS WHICH AID 81 

as members of *'the Junior congregation/' agree- 
ing to attend at least one service each Sunday. 
The pastor is selected to be the minister of the 
congregation. A simple adjustment is made by 
which a record is kept each Sunday of the church 
attendance of the young people, and at the close 
of each quarter those making a perfect record 
are given public recognition. In the Edgefield 
Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn., where this plan 
is in successful operation, sixty young people 
made a perfect record of attendance through the 
summer season. It needs hardly to be said that 
their presence in the preaching services of the 
church brought inspiration to the pastor and 
blessing to the congregation. 

The plan of combining teaching and preaching 
into one morning service. Instead of two dis- 
tinct services on Sunday morning, only one is 
held. The one service opens usually at 10.30 
A.M. After a brief season of praise and prayer, 
thirty or forty minutes is allowed for teaching. 
When the audience reassembles reports are read 
and the pastor, after another season of praise and 
prayer, brings the morning message, the whole 
morning service occupying about an hour and a 
half. This plan has been in operation for some 
years at the Southern Baptist Assembly, Ridge- 
crest, N. C, and is becoming somewhat widely 
used. Its advocates claim that it has the effect 
of securing the attendance of adults on the teach- 
6 



82 WINNING TO CHRIST 

ing service and the attendance of children and 
young people on the preaching service. 

However the problem may be solved and in 
whatever ways church attendance may be secured, 
our present purpose is to point out the bearing 
of this church-going habit upon the matter of 
conversion. The church which will reap a cease- 
less harvest of young life for the kingdom of 
God must somehow establish on the part of its 
children and youth the habit of church attend- 
ance. 

RESTATEMENT. 



Habits which aid in Winning to Christ 


I. 


Habits which hinder. 




I. 


Reading evil literature. 




2. 


Profane swearing. 




3. 


Impurity. 




4. 


The cigarette habit. 




5. 


Questionable amusements. 


II. 


Habits which help. 




I. 


Reading wholesome literature. 




2. 


Daily Bible reading. 




3- 


Daily prayer. 




4. 


Church attendance. 

(i) Why it has declined. 

(2) Methods for restoring. 

a. The Junior Congregation. 



b. The combination service. 



HABITS WHICH AID 83 

To Guide and Test Study. 

What of habits as affecting evangelism? 

To what extent are the youth of your community 
affected by light and evil literature? 

What is your own opinion as to the prevalence of 
profane swearing among the boys and men of your 
community ? 

How do habits of impurity affect evangeHsm? 

What of the effects of the cigarette habit? How far 
is this habit prevalent in your community? 

To what extent have questionable amusements af- 
fected soul- winning efforts in your own community? 

In what ways may the habit of reading wholesome 
literature contribute to evangelism? 

How may the habit of daily Bible reading aid in 
soul-winning efforts? 

What as to daily prayer as an element in our evan- 
gelizing efforts? 

How far is it true of your community that children 
and young people are forsaking the preaching services 
of the cliurch? Why? 

Tell of two methods presented for securing attend- 
ance of children and young people on the preaching 
services. 



VII. 

WINNING TO CHRIST THROUGH THE 
SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

FOR many reasons the Sunday school offers a 
natural and superior opportunity for win- 
ning toi Christ. The easy, somewhat informal 
life, the close relation of teacher to pupil, the 
presence of a great abundance of young life; 
these and other considerations make the Sunday 
school an excellent agency for evangelism. 

It will be found well to deal with the lost in 
the several departments. Grading in the Sunday 
school has brought practical blessings in many 
lines. The contribution which grading makes 
to evangelism has hardly received the emphasis 
which its importance merits. In the old-time 
order we were wont to assemble the school for 
evangelistic services with the little ones at the 
front and all the grades assembled together. The 
word suitable for the very little people was not 
the word suitable for the older boys and girls. 
The proposition intended for the more mature 
children was ofttimes accepted by the immature 
little ones, to the discomfort of the workers and 
to the undoing of the seriousness of the occasion. 
Who has not witnessed just such things? In the 
graded school, the pupils are separated into de- 
(84) 



THROUGH THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 85 

partments and they can thus have separate and 
suitable instruction and guidance. It is possible 
to go to the Primary Department with just the 
word and the dealing needed by children of eight 
years and under, and thus on through the various 
departments. 

The junior period (9 to 12) probably will be 
found to be the great harvest season so far as 
public confession and baptism are concerned. A 
certain pastor was accustomed to go at frequent 
intervals into the Junior Department. He would 
present the claims of Jesus and ask the saved 
boys and girls to come and stand together about 
him. Then he would propose that those who 
desired to seek the Lord should come also and 
stand with them while a prayer was offered. 
After the prayer and while all sang softly, the 
pastor would invite and urge acceptance and 
public confession of the Saviour. Thus he kept 
the matter of personal faith pressed upon the 
growing youth and there can be little wonder 
that few pupils in that school ever passed out of 
the Junior Department unsaved. 

The Intermediate Department (13 to 16) will 
also be found to offer a fruitful evangelistic field, 
especially if the work has not been closely pressed 
among the Juniors. Evidently there is vast 
advantage in being able to deal separately and 
appropriately with each division of life. The 
Senior and Adult Departments must not be neg- 



86 WINNING TO CHRIST 

lected; tactful effort persistently made will bear 
abundant fruits among adults who, though they 
are not Christians, are yet willing to attend Sun- 
day school for the study of God's Word. 

Many teachers will wish to deal with their 
pupils in the class. There are teachers who have 
little teaching ability, but who possess rare tact 
in speaking to the class collectively and to indi- 
vidual members about matters of personal faith, 
and who thus are able to do a far-reaching work. 
Many opportunities arise in the class. In the 
prayer offered with the class, mention may be 
made of ''the lost in our number/' in a way to 
make a deep impression. In making special 
applications or appeals, the teacher's ey<e may 
rest for a moment on the unsaved pupil in a way 
to search and impress. Simple evangelistic serv- 
ices may be held with the class, especially if 
there are separate class rooms. 

The teacher bent on the saving of his pupils 
may wish to have the pupils in his home for this 
purpose. Few teachers perhaps realize with 
what deference, even reverence, they are regardea 
by their pupils. Especially is this true among the 
younger children. To be invited to ''teacher's 
home" is an event of no small consequence. And 
"teacher's home" is an excellent place and affords 
an excellent opportunity to win the pupil to 
Christ. 



THROUGH THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 87 

A discouraged teacher wished to give up her 
class, saying, "I seem unable to win my girls 
to the Saviour." The pastoir said, *'Let us try 
one time more. Invite two of the girls to your 
home tomorrow, and I will drop in and talk the 
matter over with them." The next afternoon the 
pastor came into the teacher's home and found 
two bright girls seated there. He opened the 
great subject of salvation immediately and pre- 
sented the claims of Jesus. There in "teacher's 
home" the two girls gave their hearts to the 
Saviour. Within a week every lost girl in the 
class had been invited to the home of the teacher 
and had there confessed Jesus. 

Perhaps it may be well to visit the home of 
the pupil. A visit to the home for this express 
purpose may have good results. Go over to the 
home and say to the one who meets you, "I came 
to see John on a matter of some importance." 
''Oh, he is not at home! then tell him I will 
call again in a day or two; I must see him." 
When another call is made, "I am glad to see 
you, John. No; your mother must not leave us, 
I want her with u's. I came over to talk to you 
about giving your heart to Jesus. I have long 
prayed and labored to that end, and I hope the 
time has come when you will yourself seek the 
Saviour." When the conversation is thus defi- 
nitely open, it will be easy to press for a decision. 



88 WINNING TO CHRIST 

A pastor had been in an evangelistic service 
on a Sunday afternoon, and his heart was stirred 
with desire to lead some soul to Christ. He 
prayed for guidance and found his heart led out 
toward a fourteen-year-old boy who had recently 
moved into the community. Walking over to the 
home, he found the boy in the yard. '7^^^^> I 
came over to see you ; come with me into the 
house.'' Entering the home, "Mrs. L — , I came 
over to talk to John about the Saviour. Will you 
come and sit with us ?" The old, sw^eet story was 
told, of how Jesus came to live and die in our 
stead. They prayed together in the parlor, and 
the boy was happily saved. The mother, amid 
tears of gratitude, told the pastor how only two 
months before the boy's father had, on his death- 
bed, charged the child to seek the Lord; '*God 
sent you to our home today ; both John and myself 
were hungry for just the message you brought.'' 
And they are hungr}' for our message, more of 
them than we know. A choice place to deliver 
the message, a favorable atmosphere, may be 
found in the home of the pupil whom we seek 
to win. 

In seeking to win to Christ w^e w^ill perhaps 
do well to zirite letters. Children and young 
people have not grown accustomed, as we older 
people have, to receiving communications by mail. 
A letter, a card, from ''teacher,'' may mark an 
event in the life of a child. It may be well thus 



THROUGH THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 89 

to approach the question of the soul's welfare. 
This will open the way later for an easy conver- 
sion on the greatest of all questions. 

Henry Clay Trumbull tells how a letter won 
him to Christ and turned the tide of his life. 
''Before I had read the last of this letter, I was 
on my knees in that corner room in that lofty 
tower summit, asking forgiveness of God and 
committing myself to a long-slighted Saviour. 
That was a turning point in my course ; and in a 
half century that has passed since then I have 
been renewedly more and more grateful for the 
writing of that letter, and fbr the loving spirit 
that prompted it." 

Certainly the teacher will not wish to write the 
same letter to different children, nor will he care 
to write in formal or stereotyped style. Let him 
say in simple, straightforward fashion the things 
which are in his heart. In writing to the child 
or in speaking to him, there is no need to be your- 
self childish. Be yoiur own self, talk quietly and 
earnestly as would be natural in discussing a 
matter so grave. 

In winning to Christ we will need to use the 
young people themselves as evangelists to their 
lost companions. We ought to do this because 
thus the youthful worker grows in faith and in 
vision and conviction of Christ. We ought to 
do this also because they may have fine influence 
in this work among their companions. 



90 WINNING TO CHRIST 

A young preacher was resting during the after- 
noon of a busy day during a season of revival. 
There was a timid knock — a little boy thrust his 
head in at the door and said, 'Tlease, we boys are 
in trouble ; could you come down into the garden 
and help us out?'' The preacher was a bit per- 
plexed; what could the trouble be; had one of 
the boys fallen out of a tree and broken his arm? 
Certainly, the preacher would help the boys if he 
could. Walking down into the garden with his 
youthful guide, he saw a strange sight. Seven 
boys were sitting around a little fellow, trying to 
lead him to Christ. The leader said, ''We have 
done our best; we have each one of us told him 
how we found Jesus, but we do not seem able to 
make it plain.'' The preacher sat down in the 
group and told how he himself, a lad of ten 
years, gave his heart to Jesus, and pointed out the 
way of life. Then they bowed their heads and 
prayed, and while they prayed the light dawned 
on the child's sorrowing soul, and a blessed sense 
of forgiveness possessed him. That night when 
this boy came to confess the Saviour, the pastor 
called the other boys up and told the story of 
what had happened in the garden that afternoon. 
''These boys are my helpers; I am counting on 
them every one." And those boys became helpers 
indeed; they banded themselves together and 
worked for their lost friends so faithfully that a 
score of boys were brought to Jesus. 



THROUGH THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 91 

In this work we need to persist with the rare 
patience of Jesus himself. We will find indi- 
viduals who will resist our efforts and baffle us 
utterly. Whoever undertakes this work with 
the thought that children and young people will 
always yield readily to appeals and efforts, will 
find himself sadly disappointed. Young people 
will sometimes resist the Spirit with a strange 
perversenes's. We will need to be patient and 
persistent. 

A revival was drawing to a close. The last 
night a few boys had responded to the appeal to 
seek the Lord. One of these boys interested the 
preacher especially, a boy of pure face and noble 
form. The claims of the gospel were urged, and 
this lad trembled under the power of a great 
conviction. At last he said, 'T will not decide 
this matter now. I mean to be a Christian, but 
not now." The meeting closed that night. The 
next Saturday afternoon the boy was accidentally 
shot. As death approached, the Christian physi- 
cian, at the request of the family, urged him to 
accept and confess the Saviour. *'No,'' he said, 
"when the preacher pleaded so faithfully last 
Monday night I decided that I would not yield. 
The Spirit seemed to leave me then, and my heart 
is now cold and dead as a stone.'' Thus he went 
out without Christ and without hope. That 
preacher has often wished, and wishes today, that 



92 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



he had yet further persisted if perchance he might 
have availed when the boy was so near the king- 
dom. 

RESTATEMENT. 





Win to Christ, 


I. 


In departments. 


11. 


In the class. 


III. 


In the teacher's home. 


IV. 


In the pupiFs home. 


V. 


By writing letters. 


VI. 


By using converted youth. 


VII. 


Persist with the patience of Jesus 



To Guide and Test Study. 

Why does the Sunday school constitute a favorable 
agency for evangelism? 

Why deal with the lost in the several departments? 
Outline the plan suggested for winning the lost in the 
Junior Department. 

Suggest some ways of winning the lost in the class. 

What is your own impression of the value of soul- 
winning efforts made in the home of the teacher? 

What of such efforts in the pupil's home? 

Write a brief letter which might be suitable to send 
to a boy of twelve concerning the matter of seeking 
the Lord. 

Why should young people be used as evangelists to 
seek their lost friends? 



VIII. 
DEALING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL. 

IN all efforts to win the lost, it is personality 
and the personal touch that counts for mast. 
A wise, tactful appeal, backed by holy living, 
must have its effect. 

Win respect and affection. It is, of course, 
essential first of all that we who would win the 
child to Christ shall command his unqualified re- 
spect. Young people are exacting in their de- 
mands. Their standards are somewhat inflexible 
and their demands are rigid. Later they will 
learn to make allowance and will know more of 
the temptations and battles <yi life. At present 
they have their ideals, and woe to their elders 
if they fall short or in any w^ise disappoint their 
expectations. It is possible in one single hour 
of laxity or swerving to shatter the confidence 
of the adolescent boy or girl. 

It is scarce less important to win love. It is 
one thing to command respect, it is a higher 
thing to draw out love. A teacher stood alone 
with her pupil in the quiet of the evening. 
"Louise, do you love me?'' For response the 
child pressed the teacher's hand and gave her 
an impulsive kiss. "But, Louise, if you love me, 
I w^ant you to love my Saviour." How many chil- 

(93) 



94 WINNING TO CHRIST 

dren and older people have come to love Jesus 
because they had learned to love someone whose 
life is devoted to him. 

Seize the opportune time. This is always a 
matter of prime consequence in winning the lost. 
There are critical moments when the Spirit seems 
to set ajar all doors of approach to the citadel 
of the soul, moments when the gentlest whisper 
will penetrate to the deep recesses of the heart. 
Such times may come at the most unexpected 
seasons. We will watch for them as the watch- 
man watches for the morning. It may be that 
under the teaching of a lesson or under a sermon 
the Spirit will begin his mighty work and will 
call for our cooperation to carry that work to a 
glorious completion in salvation. It may be that 
some sorrow or disappointment will bring the 
opportune time. Such time will most likely come 
all unexpectedly and there may be nothing more 
than a sigh, a question, a yearning in the voice 
to serve notice that the way is open for the word 
touching the Saviour. 

"I remember very well,'' wrote a young man, 
"the morning I packed up my things to go and 
fill a situation in the city, how my mother prayed 
for me and said, as she thought of the tempta- 
tions I should be subject to, 'Oh, William, how 
I wish you were a Christian !' I wished so, too. 
She hoped all would be right. When that day 
I went into the garden to say good-bye to father, 



DEALING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL 95 

as he saw me coming he turned his head to hide 
the tears, and he reached out his calloused hand, 
calloused for me, and said, *You are going away 
from home, William, and all you have in this 
world is your good name. Keep that. Attend 
church regularly every Sabbath somewhere, and 
all will come out right.' I promised him I would. 
I went away sad, but determined to keep my 
promise.'' That father and mother, after years 
of waiting, spoke at an opportune time, and their 
son was speedily converted. 

We may bring about such occasion and create 
such opportune conditions. A bright boy pre- 
sented himself for church membership one Sunday 
morning. "Harry," said the pastor, "there has 
been no revival, and there seems to» be no special 
interest ; tell us how it is that you come confess- 
ing the Saviour and wanting to be baptized." 
The boy replied, "It was like this : last Sunday 
morning after class my teacher said, Wouldn't 
you like to walk with me in the park this after- 
noon? I have something very important I want 
to talk to you about.' Now, we boys are always 
glad to be with teacher, so I said, *Sure, you may 
count on me.' At four o'clock teacher and I were 
walking together in the park. We sat down on 
a rustic seat, and teacher said, 'Harry, I want 
you to give your heart to Jesus. You know I 
have long prayed to this end, and I asked you to 
come out here that we might settle this great 



96 WINNING TO CHRIST 

question/ Out there in the park I gave my heart 
to the Lord, and now I want to be baptized and 
live among his people." 

Deal with the individual alone. There is 
delicacy and a sense of sensitive shrinking in 
these deep matters of the heart. Young people 
do not open their inner selves freely in the pres- 
ence of their associates. The heart may close, 
and the deeper impressions may vanish if the 
question of personal religion be urged under such 
conditions. At least one Christian worker recalls 
the painful ordeal of being thus dealt with, and 
doubtless the experience of the one has been the 
experience of many. There are times, to be sure, 
in the great congregation when under the power 
of the Spirit it may seem easy and natural to 
speak a word or make a plea ; at such times there 
may be even greater freedom than when two are 
alone together. The point of concern is that 
there shall be such absence of restraint, such easy 
freedom, as shall insure that the soul is at liberty 
quietly to face the real issue. 

Pray much. Whoever will win souls must be 
much in prayer. God has appointed certain 
means, such as his Word and preaching and 
teaching for bringing to salvation. But these are 
not sufficient apart from the Holy Spirit. No 
sinner ever came under conviction of sin save 
by the power of the Spirit. No sinner ever appre- 
hended the atonement and appropriated its pro- 



DEALING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL 97 

visions, save through the operating in his heart 
of the blessed Spirit. Whatever gifts we possess, 
whatever influences we bring to bear, we must 
rely first and last on the divine Spirit to do his 
mighty work in the heart. 

The Holy Spirit is given in answer to prayer. 
The first Pentecost came at the end of ten days 
of ceaseless prayer. "If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your heavenly Father give 
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him" (Luke ii : 
13). It is needful that we shall importune the 
lost to turn to God, but we may not forget nor 
neglect to importune God to be gracious to the 
lost. 

Succes-sful soul-winners, without exception, 
have been faithful and urgent in prayer. They 
rely on God for guidance as to the persons whom 
they shall approach, as to the time and method 
of such approach. They wait on God for power, 
that strange, indefinable, irresistible power which 
comes through the anointing of the Spirit. When 
their eflforts seem to fail and hearts are as steel, 
they turn confidently to God and wait for help. 
They breathe the very breath of prayer and live 
in its holy atmosphere. 

Lead the person whom you would win to pray. 
Lost souls are not saved without prayer, an 
earnest cry in their own behalf for mercy and 
pardon. They should be directed to approach 



98 WINNING TO CHRIST 

God in prayer; they should be instructed as to 
the petitions they are to make. Especially when 
we are seeking to lead them to a surrender to 
Christ, we should induce them to pray. If we 
can get them to kneel with us for prayer, if we 
can induce them to lift their voices to God either 
in their own words or in words which we may 
suggest, the way to surrender and trust becomes 
easy. 

Find the clue to the souL In every life there 
is some natural^ easy way into the inner soul, 
some simple key which will fit that special door 
and open it for the gospel messenger and his 
message. We succeed in our efforts largely in 
proportion as we find that natural approach, and 
thus move along the line of least resistance. 

A pastor visited a great business man in his 
office. A recent bereavement had befallen the 
man''s family. He talked tenderly of his stricken 
wife and his sorrowing daughters, and spoke of 
their singular faith and beautiful devotion. The 
pastor thought he saw a clue to the castle of the 
man's soul. "You love this wife and these daugh- 
ters ; you grieve for them in their sorrow ; would 
you like to do something which above all other 
things would bless them and make them 
supremely happy?'' Without suspecting what 
was in the pastor's mind, the man said, "I would 
do anything in the world ; make any sacrifice, suf- 
fer anything, to make my wife and daughters 



DEALING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL 99 

supremely happy/' The pastor said, quietly and 
earnestly, "The one thing which will bring them 
highest happiness will mean no sacrifice for you 
and will call for no suffering. If you will this 
day surrender your heart to God and trust Jesus 
Christ as a Savio,ur and go home and tell your 
wife and daughters that you have done so, their 
hearts will break for very happiness." The tact- 
ful pastor had found the weak spot in the strong 
man's armor ; he had made the one appeal which 
could win the proud, sinful heart. The battle 
was severe, but short and decisive. The leader 
of men, the captain of finance, touched in the 
depths of his nature by the mute yearning of 
devout loved ones, yielded his soul to the cleans- 
ing and the keeping of the Friend of sinners. 

Find out and remove difficulties. Much of our 
effort in soul-winning is ineffective because we 
fail at this point. We may urge a person to be- 
lieve and trust Christ, when we might do better 
to seek out the secret indulgence, the unseen in- 
fluence, which stands between the soul and Christ, 
and urge the confession and removal of the sin 
which constitutes an unsurmountable barrier. 

A young man was under conviction for sin, 
and in distress and with evident sincerity was 
seeking the Lord. A Christian worker gave the 
usual instruction, presented again and again the 
way of life in Christ, but was disappointed in 
being unable to lead the seeking one to the Sa- 



100 WINNING TO CHRIST 

viour. The two knelt to pray together and the 
worker asked the seeker to offer the prayer, **Our 
Father which art in heaven," etc. The prayer 
proceeded to the petition, ^'Forgive us our tres- 
passes as we forgive those who trespass against 
us/' Here the voice ceased and the suppliant 
refused to proceed. Suddenly it dawned upon 
the worker that an unforgiving spirit stood in the 
way. In tender but faithful words it was made 
clear that this sin must be confessed and for- 
saken. At last, in slow, measured tones, the 
words were uttered, "Forgive us our trespasses 
as zve forgive those who trespass against us/' 
Immediately the light dawned, and there was a 
sense of peace and acceptance with God. 

A determination to hold to some sinful amuse- 
ment, an obstinate refusal to do something which 
the Christian life may seem to require, any one 
of many things, may keep the soul from the king- 
dom of God. Be faithful; urge complete sur- 
render and final submission. 

Press for a decision. Much of our effort to 
win the lost fails because we do not dare to close 
in and strike for a verdict. We bear witness in 
timid fashion and hasten to leave the lost soul in 
its indecision. Joshua's memorable word, 
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve/' 
should be our urgent plea. Are we not commis- 
sioned to compel them to come in ? Such urgency 
and insistence is proper from every viewpoint. 



DEALING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL 101 

The peril to which the lost soul is exposed, the 
yearning love of the divine heart, the promise 
of immediate pardon to the soul that yields, every 
high and worthy consideration demands that we 
shall patiently and persistently press for a deci- 
sion. 

RESTATEMENT. 

In Dealing with Individuals. 

I. Win respect and affection. 

II. Seize the opportune time. 

III. Deal with the individual alone. 

IV. Pray much. 

V. Lead the seeker to pray. 

VI. Find the clue to the soul. 

VII. Discover and remove difficulties. 

VIII. Press for a decision. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Why is it necessary to win respect and affection in 
order to win to Christ? 

What of seizing the opportune time? Can such times 
be brought about? Give illustration of this. 

Why is it wise to deal with the individual alone? 

What of prayer in soul- winning? 

What is meant by a clue to the soul? 

Why should we lead the seeker to pray? 

Name some difficulties which it is sometimes neces- 
sary to discover and remove in order to bring to Christ ? 



IX. 



THE USE OF THE BIBLE IN WINNING 
TO CHRIST. 

WHEN we come to the task of winning a 
soul to Christ, we do well to make use of 
the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. There 
is no other weapon like this — pungent, powerful, 
convincing. 

"Is not my word like as fire, and like a ham- 
mer that breaketh the rock in pieces?'' (Jer. 
23: 29.) 

"The Holy Scriptures which are able to make 
thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus'' (2 Tim. 3: 15). 

"Receive with meekness the engrafted word 
which is able to save your souls" (James i : 21). 

There are many excellent reasons for using 
the Word as our chief reliance. 

God promises to use and bless his Word, 
"For as the rain cometh down and the snow 
from heaven, and returneth not thither, but 
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth 
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and 
bread to the eater: so shall my word be that 
goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return 
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which 

(102) 



1 



THE USE OF THE BIBLE 103 

I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto 
I sent if' (Isaiah 55: 10, 11). 

God's Word produces conviction for sin. There 
can be no genuine experience of grace without 
conviction for sin; the deeper and more real 
the conviction, the deeper and more abiding are 
the fruits of the religious experience. It is the 
way of our age to think lightly concerning sin. 
No other words like the very words of Scripture 
can convince of sin. 

God's Word produces faith. 'Taith cometh 
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God'' 
(Rom. 10: 17). 

In all the ages the preaching which has pro- 
duced faith has been the preaching which set 
forth the truth as God has revealed it in his 
Word. The personal testimony which has 
availed most has relied much on the simple Word 
of God. When on God's behalf we offer peace 
and pardon to lost men we ought to offer these 
on the basis of God's own promise. When we 
invite and urge men to believe we ought to offer 
them a definite word of God on the basis of 
which they may believe. The writer has often 
used for this purpose Romans 5 : 6-8 : 

'Tor when we were yet without strength, in 
due time Christ died for the ungodly. For 
scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet 
peradventure for a good man some would even 
dare to die. But God commendeth his love 



104 WINNING TO CHRIST 

toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners 
Christ died for the ungodly/' Twice over we 
have it here out of God's own Word that ^'Christ 
died for the ungodly." This, then, is a sure 
foundation for our faith. 

God's Word is the means used by the Holy 
Spirit to regenerate as. This is clearly set forth 
in James i: i8, where we read: *'Of his own 
will begat he us with the word of truth." It is 
also declared in i Peter i : 23 : ''Being born again, 
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God which liveth and abideth for- 
ever." 

In view of these facts, that God promises to 
use his Word, that the Word of God convicts 
of sin, that it produces faith, and that it is used 
by the Spirit as the means of regeneration, who- 
ever would win souls will make it his chief re- 
liance in dealing with the lost. In thus using 
the Word suffer the following suggestions : 

1. Have the seeker to read the passage for 
himself. There is impressiveness and power in 
opening the Bible, and after pointing out the par- 
ticular passage which we wish to use, having the 
one with whom we deal to read perhaps aloud 
the words of Scripture. 

2. If we quote a passage it is well to precede 
the words of Scripture by the reference which 
indicates both that it is Scripture and where it is 
to be found. Thus if we wish to quote the words. 



THE USE OF THE BIBLE 105 

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree," we should say i Peter 2: 24, 
"Who/' etc. 

3. It is well to select two or three passages on 
vital points, such as sin, faith and confession, 
and to thoroughly familiarize ourselves with 
these, so that we can readily turn to them and 
can skillfully use them. On the whole, it seems 
better to rely on two or three apt passages to 
make a given impression than to risk confusing 
the mind with many passages. 

(i) To produce conviction for sin use the 
following : 

Isaiah 53: 6: "All we like sheep have gone 
astray : we have turned every one to his own way ; 
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us 
all.'' 

Romans 3 : 10, 23 : "There is none righteous, 
no, not one ;" "for all have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God." 

Jeremiah 17: 9: "The heart is deceitful above 
all things and desperately wicked : who can know 
it?" 

Emphasize the fact that "all" have sinned. 
Turn in the Bible to these verses and ask the one 
with whom you deal to read them. Pray that 
God's Spirit may use his Word to pierce the 
heart and produce conviction for sin. 

(2) To produce faith and bring to a decision 
use — 



106 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Isaiah 53 : 6 : 'It makes the way of salvation 
very plain. Read the first part of the verse to 
the inquirer, "All we like sheep have gone as- 
tray ; we have turned every one to his own way/' 
Then ask, ''Is that true of you?'' and when he 
has thought it over and said, "Yes," then say 
to him, "Now, let us see what God has done with 
your sins," and read the remainder of the verse, 
"And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all." What, then, is it necessary for you 
to do to be saved?" Very soon he can be led 
to see that all that is necessary for him to do 
is to accept the sin-bearer whom God has pro- 
vided (R. A. Torrey). 

I Timothy 1:15: "This is a faithful saying 
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I 
am chief." 

Ask the seeker, "Whom did Jesus come to 
save?" Hold him to this question until he says, 
"He came to save even the chief of sinners." 
"Then do you not think he is willing to save 
you?" 

I Peter 2: 24: "Who his own self bore our 
sins in his own body on the tree." 

Press the question, "Whose sins did Jesus 
bear?" When he says, "our sins," then insist 
that this glorious fact be at once believed and 
acted on. 



THE USE OF THE BIBLE 107 

(3) To show the duty of public confession 
use — 

Romans lo: 9: 'That if thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe 
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved/' 

Matthew 10 : 32 : "Whosoever, therefore, 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven/' 

RESTATEMENT. 

I. Why use the Word? 

1. God promises to bless his Word. 

2. God's Word produces conviction. 

3. God's Word produces faith. 

4. God's Word is the means used in regenera- 

tion. 

II. How use the Word? 

1. Have the seeker to read for himself. 

2. In quoting, name the chapter and verse. 

3. Select and use a few vital passages. 

III. Some passages which may be used. 

1. To produce conviction: 
Isaiah 53: 6. 
Romans 3: 10, 23. 
Jeremiah 17: 9. 

2. To bring decision: 
Isaiah 53 : 6. 

I Timothy i : 15. 
I Peter 2: 24. 



108 WINNING TO CHRIST 

3. To show the duty of public confession. 
Romans 10: 9. 
Matthew 10: 32. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Quote two Scriptures which indicate the power of 
the Word of God in bringing to salvation. 

State three reasons for using the Bible in dealing 
with the lost. 

Quote a passage to show that God promises to bless 
his Word. 

Show that God's Word produces faith. 

Prove from the Scriptures that God's Word is used 
as a means for our regeneration. 

What three suggestions are made as to how to use 
the Word in soul-winning? 

Why should the seeker be asked to read the Scrip- 
ture for himself? 

Quote two passages suitable for producing convic- 
tion of sin. 

Quote two passages which may be used to bring to a 
decision for Christ. 

Show how Isaiah 53: 6 may be used in winning 
to Christ. 

What two things must one know and what one thing 
must he do in order to be saved? 

Quote two Scriptures to show t-he duty of a public 
confession. 



X. 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES AND 
DIFFICULTIES. 

WHEN in the parable of the Supper the 
servants went out to call those who were 
bidden, 'They all with one consent began to 
make excuse." While the excuses which they 
rendered were various, it lies on the face of the 
story that the real reason was in all cases the 
same : they did not want to accept the invitation, 
they did not wish to be present at the feast. 
When we urge men to come to Christ, they meet 
us with many excuses and present many difficul- 
ties. We must know that the real difficulty is 
in all cases the same; they do not want Christ 
on the conditions which he requires ; they do not 
desire to be saved. Our Lord expressed it when 
he said, ^'Ye will not come unto me that ye might 
have life.'' This unwillingness to come to Christ, 
this persistent refusal of Christ's advances, is a 
sure evidence of natural innate depravity, and is 
itself tKe essence of all sinfulness. Successful 
soul-winners must have a clear conviction of this 
inevitable natural indisposition to accept Christ 
and of its essential sinfulness. 

While this basal fact must be kept clearly in 
mind, it is yet helpful and necessary that we 

(109) 



110 WIXXIXG TO CHRIST 

shall be able to deal with excuses as they may be 
made and to remove difficulties as they arise. We 
will especially need to know how to use the Word 
in dealing with the following classes : 

Those who feel no conviction of sin. and hence 
have no desire to be saved. 

Those who, convicted of sin, are anxious to 
be saved,, but have difficulties. 

Those who, convicted of sin, are anxious to be 
saved, but are ignorant of the way of life. 

I. Those zi'ho have no conviction of sin, and 
hence have no desire to he saved. 

This will constitute by far the largest number 
of the lost with whom we should deal. They 
feel no concern for their spiritual condition; 
they meet all of our approaches and our solici- 
tude with cool indifference ; they would be let 
alone. What is to be our attitude toward these 
who have no interest in our Lord and no concern 
about the eternal life which he offers? 

I. We are not to let them alone. This is their 
desire, to be left alone, as it is our temptation. 
They would fain be left alone in their ease of 
conscience and in their indulgence of sin. They 
would have us think indeed that our efforts and 
our concern only drive them further away. Dr. 
W. B. Riley tells of some countr}' youths in 
Kentucky who, making their way home near 
midnight, saw lying by the roadside a little 
mound covered with snow. Pushing back the 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 111 

snow, they discovered to their amazement the 
body of a man ; a neighbor had fallen in a drunken 
stupor and was now in evident peril of being 
frozen to death. The young men took in the sit- 
uation in a moment, and realizing the man's 
peril, resolved to carry him safely home. But 
the man pleaded to be let alone, and when his 
pleas were unavailing, he resisted, cursing bit- 
terly and fighting with all his might. The stal- 
wart youths, one under either arm and one be- 
hind, marched the man down the road and never 
left him until they saw him safe in his own 
home. 

Our lost friends wish to be left alone; above 
all things they would have us leave them undis- 
turbed. But to leave themi may mean death. 

2. We are to use such Scripture passages as 
will convince them of sin, 

( I ) Read to your lost friend Matthew 22 : 37, 
38: *'J^s^s said unto himi, Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the 
first and great commandment.'' 

Ask what is here said to be the first and great 
commandment. When in answer he has sol- 
emnly repeated the words of Jesus, ask him if he 
has done this? Show him that he owes two 
sets of obligations, that one goes up and con- 
cerns God while the other goes out and concerns 
our fellowmen. "Now, you may have fulfilled 



112 WINNING TO CHRIST 

every duty to your fellows, but what of this duty 
which is 'first and great/ to love God supreme- 
ly ?" Wait, and press this question, praying that 
the Holy Spirit will send conviction. 

(2) Use also James 2: 10: "For whosoever 
shall keep the whole law, yet oflfend in one point, 
he is guilty of all/' 

There is unity in the divine law; broken in 
one point it is broken in all. If a man be sus- 
pended by a chain of ten links, and one of these 
links shall break, the man falls as surely as if 
every link had broken at the same time. Ask the 
lost one to read slowly these words of James 
2: 10. Then ask him if he has not "offended 
in one point." 

(3) Use Heb. 10: 28, 29: "He that despised 
Moses' law died without mercy under two or 
three witnesses. Of how much sorer punish- 
ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, 
who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and 
hath counted the blood of the covenant, where- 
with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath 
done despite unto the Spirit of grace ?" 

Show the one whom you seek to win that to 
reject Christ is the greatest of sins. Ask him 
if he knows that in refusing Christ he has 
"trodden under foot the Son of God.'' Let him 
read for himself, that he hath counted the blood 
of the covenant an unholy thing and hath done 
despite unto the Spirit of grace. Wait and pray 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 113 

till the Spirit bears in on the soul a conviction 
of sin, for we may be well assured that without 
conviction of sin there is no remission. 

II. Those who, convicted of sin, are anxious 
to he saved, but have difficulties. 

This is a more hopeful state. When a sense 
of sin has been aroused and there is even the 
slightest desire to be saved, our task is definite 
and clear. We are, with the help of the Holy 
Spirit, to hasten to remove the barriers which 
stand in the way of perfect trust. Note some of 
the difficulties which we are sure to encounter: 

I. "I am too great a sinner. God cannot 
save me." 

If one makes this statement with any sem- 
blance of sincerity, there is bright hope for his 
early conversion; he is ''not far from the king- 
dom." At first Satan makes us believe that we 
are good enough to be saved without Christ; 
later he would persuade us that we are so bad 
that even Christ cannot save us. 

(i) Use Luke 19: 10: Tor the Son of man 
is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 

Why did the Son of man come? Who is it 
Christ came to seek and save ? Press these ques- 
tions until the sinner answers them for himself. 
If a trained surgeon comes into a group of men, 
some of whom are in perfect physical condition 
and some of whom are maimed and crippled, 
8 



114 WINNING TO CHRIST 

which class of these men will attract the eye and 
heart of the surgeon? 

(2) Use also i Tim. 1:15: 'This is a faith- 
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; 
of whom I am chief." 

''One Sunday morning a man who had led 
a wild and wandering life and who had recently 
lost $35,000 and had been separated from his 
wife, said to me, in response to my question, why 
he was not a Christian, 'I am too great a sinner 
to be saved.' I turned at once to i Tim. 1:15. 
He quickly replied, Well, I am the chief of sin- 
ners.' 'Well,' I said, 'that verse means you then.' 
He replied, Tt is a precious promise.' I said, 
'Will you accept it now?' and he said, 'I will.' 
Then I said, 'Let us kneel down and tell God so,' 
and we knelt down and he confessed to God his 
sins, and asked God for Christ's sake to forgive 
him his sins. I asked him if he had really ac- 
cepted Christ, and he said he had. I asked him 
if he really believed that he was saved, and he 
said he did. He took an early opportunity of 
confessing Christ. He left the city in a short 
time, but I was able to follow him. He became 
a most active Christian, working at his business 
day times, but engaged in some form of Christian 
work every night in the week. He was reunited 
to his wife, and adopted a little child out of an 
orphan asylum and had a happy Christian home" 
(Dr. R, A, Torrey). 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 115 

2. ''I have no feeling." 

Many people find difficulty in that though they 
wish to be saved, they do not experience the 
feeling which they somehow expect. 

(i) Show this class that God's order is *'fact, 
faith and feeling.'' 

Fact, God begins with facts. It is a fact 
that God loves sinful men. It is a fact that in 
due time Christ died for the ungodly. It is a 
fact that salvation is offered on the basis of un- 
conditional surrender and childlike trust. These 
are facts and with them we do well to begin. 
Ponder them well. 

Faith, God next asks faith. ''Believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." We 
see the historical fact that Christ died for our 
sins according to the Scriptures and thus satis- 
fied the divine law making salvation possible to 
him that believe th. 

Feeling, When the soul by faith has planted 
itself on the fact of Christ's atoning merit and 
has been forgiven, then comes feeling, the feeling 
of joy and love and gratitude. This clearly is 
God's order. 

Alas that the sinner in his blindness and self- 
conceit should wish to reverse this order and 
should expect and demand feeling first and re- 
fuse to exercise faith until God has given feeling. 

(2) Use Isaiah 55: 7: ''Let the wicked for- 
sake his way and the unrighteous man his 



116 WINNING TO CHRIST 

thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and 
he will have mercy upon him; and to our God 
for he will abundantly pardon/' 

God here demands that the sinner shall for- 
sake his way. He does not require that the 
sinner shall have certain feelings. In no other 
departments of life or duty do we wait for feel- 
ing. In the chapter on 'Interpreting the Reli- 
gious Experience/' the various phases of feel- 
ing which may accompany conversion are dis- 
cus^sed. 

3. ''There is someone whom I cannot forgive/' 
(i) Show them that they must forgive. To 
foster the spirit of resentment is to harbor fires 
in the heart which will burn and destroy. Our 
hatred of another does not necessarily injure that 
other, but it does necessarily and greatly injure 
ourselves. This yielding to resentment so far 
from indicating strength is bom of weakness. It 
is a flaming fire, an eating cancer, a deadly virus. 
We must forgive, whether or not we care to 
become Christians. 

(i) Show them that they can forgive. In- 
deed, when one says, 'T cannot forgive," he 
would better say, "I will not forgive." Besides, 
what we cannot do unaided and in our own 
strength, we can easily do with the help of God''s 
Holy Spirit. '1 can do all things through Christ 
which strengtheneth me." 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 117 

(3) God cannot forgive us our sins except 
we forgive those who sin against us. 

Use Mark ii : 25, 26: "And when ye stand 
praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; 
that your Father also which is in heaven may 
forgive your trespasses. But if ye do not for- 
give, neither will your Father which is in heaven 
forgive your trespasses.'' 

(4) '7 fear I cannot hold out,'' 

(a) Use 2 Tim. 1:12: 'Tor the which cause I 
also suffer these things : nevertheless I am not 
ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and 
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which 
I have committed unto him against that day.'' 

Christ assumes responsibility for our keeping; 
we are not any longer to keep ourselves. The 
headlight of the great locomotive engine throws 
its light only a few hundred yards ahead; as 
the engine drives forward in the darkness, the 
light keeps well ahead. It would be a foolish 
engineer who would sit down and demand that 
light be flashed all the way to his destination. 
Ask the sinner to accept Christ and walk out 
with him, trusting that light and help will be 
given for every emergency. 

(b) Use also Jude 24: ''Now unto him that is 
able to keep you from falling, and to present 
you faultless before the presence of his glory with 
exceeding joy." 



118 WINNING TO CHRIST 

III. Those who, convicted of sin, are anxious 
to he saved, hut do not know the plan of sal- 
vation. 

These are not difficult to deal with. The three 
Scriptures discussed in the last chapter under 
hringing to a decision may be used here. 

I. God offers salvation upon two conditions: 

(i) Repentance. Show that what God re- 
quires first of every sinner is that he shall repent. 

Luke 13:3: ''Except ye repent, ye shall all 
likewise perish." 

Three things are involved in the duty to re- 
pent: (a) A new thought, a new view, of 'sin; 
(b) a new feeling toward sin, a recognition of 
its heinousness in God's sight; (c) a new atti- 
tude toward sin, a turning from it. 

Isaiah 55 : 7 : ''Let the wicked forsake his 
way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and 
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will 
abundantly pardon." 

(2) Faith. John i: 12: "But as many as 
received him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
his name." 

"A woman once came to me in great agitation. 
After many ineffectual attempts she was at last 
able to unburden her heart. Fourteen years be- 
fore she had killed a man, and had borne the 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 119 

memory of the act upon her conscience until it 
had almost driven her crazy. When she told the 
story to another Christian and myself, we turned 
to Isaiah 53 : 6. After reading the verse very 
carefully to her, I asked her what the Lord had 
done with her sin. After a few moments' deep 
and anxious thought, 'she said, 'He has laid it 
on Christ.' I took a book in my hand. 'Now,' 
I said, 'let my right hand represent you, and 
my left hand Christ, and this book your sin. I 
laid the book upon my right hand and I said, 
'Where is your sin now?' She said, *On me.' 
'Now,' I said, 'what has God done with it ?' She 
said, 'Laid it on Christ,' and I laid the book over 
on the other hand. 'Where is your sin now?' I 
asked. It was long before she could summon 
courage to answer, and then with a desperate 
effort she said, 'On Christ.' I said, 'Then is it 
on you any longer?' Slowly the light came into 
her face and she burst out with a cry, 'No, it is 
on him, it is on Christ' " (Dr, R. A. Torrey, in 
''How to Bring Men to Christ"), 

2. God requires as evidence of this salvation 
and in gratitude for it : 

(i) That we confess Christ before the world. 

Matthew 10 : 32, 33 : "Whosoever, therefore, 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. But 
whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I 
also deny before my Father which is in heaven." 



120 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Romans lo: 9, 10: 'That if thou shalt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- 
lieve in thine heart that God hath raised him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and 
with the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion/' 

The divinely given method of making our first 
great confession of Christ is the ordinance of 
baptism. It is well enough to sign a card, to 
stand up, to go forward, in any way to confess 
Christ; but the initial confession in which we 
definitely and before the world separate between 
the old life and the new is the act of baptism. 
We are then by word and work and life to con- 
fess Christ daily and hourly before the world. 

(2) That we accept Christ as Lord of our 
lives. 

Acts 2 : 36 : 'Therefore let all the house of 
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that 
same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
and Christ.'' 

(3) That we work out our salvation. 

Phil. 2: 12, 13: ''Wherefore, my beloved, as 
ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence 
only, but now much more in my absence, work 
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 
For it is God which worketh in you both to will 
and to do of his good pleasure." 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 121 

Christ is to be Lord as well as Saviour. He 
is to be the arbiter of our conduct and hence- 
forth our business is to serve him. We are saved 
that we may save and serve. 



In the preceding chapters we have studied with 
various angles of approach the art of soul-win- 
ning. Before we turn to a consideration of further 
and fuller steps in winning to Christ, we pause 
to enter a plea for what Prof. L. R. Scar- 
borough has called *'the organization of an 
evangelistic phalanx in the church life for the 
winning of men.'' The pastor who will lead his 
church forces afield for the lost will wish to 
have every organization within the church, the 
Sunday school, the organized classes, the 
B. Y. P. U., the Sunbeams, the Royal Ambassa- 
dors, the Young Women's Auxiliary, the 
Woman's Missionary Society, enlisted and 
praying and working to this end. He will form 
and train an inner circle of spiritually-minded 
souls who will be ready at his call or at the call 
of the Holy Spirit to deal personally with the 
lost. These will watch in the regular congrega- 
tions for indications and evidences of the Spirit's 
presence and work with the lost; they will go 
with the pastor when he goes with his saving 
message to the mission, or the factory, or the 
shop, or the street meeting; these will follow the 



122 WINNING TO CHRIST 

pastor both as individuals and in groups with 
their prayers as he goes to other communities 
in evangeHstic effort. With this praying and 
winning circle at the center of the church life, 
the pastor can lead the church to deliver for 
evangelism its full and constant force upon the 
community and to touch through its gifts for 
missions the remotest bounds of the earth. Such 
churches approximate in method and spirit the 
churches of apostolic times. 

RESTATEMENT. 

Dealing with Excuses and Difficulties. 

Back of all excuses, 
Ye zvill not come. 

I. Those who have no conviction of sin and no desire 
to be saved. 

1. We are not to let them alone. 

2. Use such Scriptures as will convince of sin. 
(i) Matthew 22: 37, 38. 

(2) James 2 : 10. 

(3) Hebrews 10: 28, 29. 

II. Those who would be saved, but have difficultie:. 

1. "I am too great a sinner.*' 
(i) Luke 19: 10. 

(2) I Timothy 1 : 15. 

2. *T have no feeling." 

(i) God^s order is fact, faith, feeling. 
(2) Isaiah 55: 7. 

3. "There is someone I cannot forgive." 
(i) We must forgive. 



DEALING WITH EXCUSES 123 

(2) We can forgive. 

(3) Else God will not forgive us. Mark 

II : 25, 26. 
4. "I fear I cannot hold out." 
(i) 2 Timothy i : 12. 
(2) Jude 24. 

III. Those who wish to be saved, but do not know how. 

1. God offers salvation on two conditions: 
(i) Repentance. Luke 13: 3. 

(2) Faith. John i : 12. 

2. God requires as evidence that we are saved : 
(i) Thztwt confess Christ. Matthew 10: 32. 

(2) That we accept Christ as Lord. Acts 2 : 36. 

(3) That we work out our salvation. Philip- 

pians 2: 12, 13. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

What is the real reason why lost souls are not saved? 
What three classes do we consider in this chapter? 

What two suggestions are made as to dealing with 
those who do not desire to be saved? Quote three pas- 
sages of Scripture suitable for dealing with this class 
and show how each passage may be used. 

Name four excuses or difficulties which are discussed. 
Quote two Scriptures suitable for dealing with those 
who feel that they are too sinful to be saved. What 
two suggestions are made as to those who have no feel- 
ing? What three suggestions are made as to those who 
say they cannot forgive? Quote two passages suitable 
for those who fear they cannot hold out. 

What two suggestions are made for those who wish 
to be saved, but do not know how? What is it to re- 
pent? What is it to believe? What three things does 
God require as evidence of salvation? 



XL 

BRINGING TO BAPTISM. 

IN the fullness of time, when we have brought 
the lost soul to accept Jesus as a personal 
Saviour, we will want also to bring him to a 
public confession of the Saviour in baptism. 

"Infant baptism is something entirely apart. 
As a principle and practice it is an occasion of 
division among Christians; it has no mention in 
the New Testament, although baptism is a New 
Testament ordinance and has there every law 
for its government, as to subject and form and 
design. True, baptizing infants is not forbidden 
in the New Testament by word; and yet it is 
even more powerfully prohibited by the very 
nature of the ordinance and by its requirement 
and meaning for the individual. Baptism is not 
possible for infants simply because it is utterly 
beyond them" (Dr. /. M. Frost, in ''Moral 
Dignity of Baptism''). 

In bringing repentant children to baptisrri, two 
questions arise. 

I. How early shall the child be permitted or 
encouraged to come to baptism? We have no 
need to raise this question of age as regards 
coming to Jesus, for the Master himself has 
settled that question for us : ^'Suffer the little 

(124) 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 125 

children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven/' The 
word translated ''little children'' is a diminutive 
of the word which means boys and girls, and is 
limited only by the ability to "come." But how 
early shall children be encouraged to offer them- 
selves for baptism? This is a question which 
perplexes many parents and Christian workers. 
What measure of maturity, what development, 
what grasp of the ordinances, the church, the 
plan of salvation, should we expect before we 
encourage baptism? This is a matter of grave 
and delicate moment to all who will deal with 
young life. 

1. Children vary widely in their development. 
One child may think and feel as deeply at eight 
a's another at twelve. One child may be more 
mature as regards spiritual things and spiritual 
experiences than another child who is much 
older in years. We cannot, therefore, state any 
age for baptism, and it would hardly be safe 
to suggest even an approximate age. 

2. The Scriptures give no specific direction, 
leaving us here as elsewhere to work out and 
apply certain fundamental principles. This being 
true, we may well be guarded in our expressions 
and tolerant of those who may reach other con- 
clusions. 

3. Baptism is a public confession of Jesus as 
Lord and Savio.ur; it carries with it a life align- 



126 WINNING TO CHRIST 

ment. It may be safely inferred that baptism 
should come as early as there appear to be sure 
evidences that mind and heart have yielded to 
the Saviour, and that he is enthroned as Lord. 
On the other hand, inasmuch as the ordinance 
is to be observed once for all and is a matter 
involving life committal it would seem that bap- 
tism ought not to come so early as not to be 
remembered with distinctness in later years, or 
before there is some ability to grasp the mighty 
significance of the step. 

4. Under the old dispensation, the Jewish lad 
became a ''son of the law," took his place as a 
member of the great family of Jehovah, about 
the age of twelve. This, of course, is merely 
suggestive; and it must be borne in mind that 
life with us advances more rapidly and matures 
much earlier than in the days of the Hebrew 
commonwealth. 

5. Both Scripture and experience seem to 
favor an early age for baptism. When the Spirit 
of God has wrought his work of grace in the 
heart — and parents and teachers must patiently 
discern the Spirit's working — there may be posi- 
tive harm to the whole life if consent or encour- 
agement to be baptized is withheld. Faith i's at 
first timid and hesitating, and it requires the 
strengthening which comes from recognition 
and confession. 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 127 

An old story which has gone the rounds points 
the lesson. Eleven-year-old Henry desired to 
unite with the church and be baptized. Said 
Henry's father, '1 have no objection to your 
being baptized, but I am not sure that you will 
hold out. Let's wait a year or so, and see how 
you get along." The boy Oif course submitted 
to the word of the father. A few days later, 
during cold and stormy weather Henry was told 
to go and shut in the flock of sheep for the night. 
After nightfall the father heard suspicious 
sounds. CalHng the boy, he said, ''Henry, did 
you shut in those 'sheep?" The boy hesitated a 
moment and said, "Father, I turned all the sheep 
in except one little lamb. It looked so little and 
frail I doubted whether it could hold out. I 
thought if it survived the night I would take it 
in tomorrow." The father felt the force of the 
hint, and said, "My boy, you may join the church 
whenever you wish." 

Some pastors have found it worth while to 
make and keep a special list of the boys and girls 
who have confessed Christ and yet who for any 
reason may not have been baptized. These are 
regarded and treated as believers and are encour- 
aged to go forward in various forms of Christian 
service. This measure of recognition serves to 
confirm their faith and to make possible a further 
development of Christian life and is especially 
desirable when baptism and church membership 



128 WINNING TO CHRIST 

are not deemed advisable. A wise mother said 
awhile ago, **My children have all very early 
given evidence of saving faith in Jesus. All of 
them desired to unite with the church at an age 
so young that I thought it best to have them wait. 
But I never questioned the reality of their faith, 
nor told them that they were too young. I told 
them that I believed in them and that I believed 
they were really trusting the Lord. I regarded 
them, and taught them to regard themselves, as 
believers. Later, when I felt that it was right, I 
gave my consent for them to be baptized." 

n. What if parents should oppose baptism? 

The evangelistic spirit and effort ought to. re- 
side in the home; parents ought to be foremost 
in seeking the salvation of their children. And 
yet it seems right that out of the Sunday school 
and the church there should come zeal and effort 
for the lost which shall reinforce and strengthen 
the efforts of the home. 

Where evangelistic fires burn in the Sunday 
school and in the church, and ceaseless efforts are 
made to bring the youth to 'salvation, there will 
inevitably arise problems in connection with the 
home and the parents. It will many times be 
necessary after you have brought about the child's 
conversion to expend even more effort in con- 
verting the parent, in bringing the parent to 
believe in the child's conversion, and in getting 
his consent to the child's baptism. It is worth 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 129 

while to consider, patiently the position the parent 
takes in the matter. 

I. If the father and mother object to the bap- 
tism of the child, the difficulties may lie in one of 
these directions : 

( 1 ) The parents may be themselves unconverted 
If they have not themselves trusted the Lord and 
obeyed him in baptism there can be little wonder 
that they are indifferent concerning the obedience 
of the child. And yet it ought to be said that 
there is usually that in the parental heart which 
somehow longs to see the child come into right 
relation with God. Even if the parent is not 
saved, there will usually be found that in his 
heart which gives response to honest effort to 
seek the highest 'spiritual welfare of his child. 

(2) The difficulty may grow out of the fact that 
the parent is cold and backslidden in life. When 
we drift from the Father our eyes become dim 
and our hearts dull, so that we are slow to per- 
ceive the Spirit's working. It is only when we 
ourselves have the joy of salvation that we are 
concerned to teach sinners in God's ways. 

(3) The opposition of the parent may grow out 
of the fact that he is not informed as to what 
has been done for the child and has not been 
apprised of the indications of interest on his part. 
In the Sunday school, which the parent possibly 
does not attend, prayers have been offered, efforts 
have been made and developments have come, 

9 



130 WIN NINO TO C:HRIST 

conccrniii^^ which the parent has httle or no in- 
formation. The child is not hkely to tell at home 
what he has felt and what has been done in these 
lines in the Sunday school. In some cases the 
first information that reaches the parent of all 
that is bcin^ done and has been doing for months, 
is that the child wishes to be baptized. Naturally 
the discreet parent feels a measure of difficulty. 

(4) The parent may not be instructed concern- 
ing his sacred and urgent obligation to guide the 
child along in a definite and positive way as re- 
gards acceptance of Christ and obedience in 
baptism. Many parents appear to feel that if 
they prevent the child from taking a wrong 
course they have ])crformc(l their whole duty. 
The soul of the child is stirred and, conscious of 
sin and need, he wishes to "join the church." It 
is not enough to prevent the child from making 
the mistake of seeking church membership when 
he ought to seek Christ. Instead of denying con- 
sent for the child's baptism, let the parent give 
himself in this opportune time to leading the child 
to Christ, quietly holding baptism and church 
membership in abeyance until the time comes 
for their consideration. 

Parents should know that when the Holy wSpirit 
is moving upon the child's nature, great concern 
is to be felt and much care is to be exercised to 
guide along wisely in harmony with the divine 
moving. Such seasons of spiritual interest do 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 131 

not come at our call. A father objected to the 
baptism of his beautiful and tender twelve-year- 
old daughter, saying that he wanted her to grow 
older and try the world somewhat to see whether 
then she would really wish to lead a Christian life. 
Six years later, when the girl had become swept 
with worldliness and her soul fettered with 
worldly habits, the father besought her in vain, 
with tears and a broken heart, to accept Christ 
and live the life of a Christian. This father's 
name is legion. He learned too late that spiritual 
interest comes of the work of God's mighty Spirit 
and that it is the part of wisdom to fall in with 
the working of that Spirit, using our utmost 
endeavor to bring to Christ at such seasons as he 
may choose. 

(5) The parent may not be convinced that the 
child has really experienced the necessary change. 
The parent is converted, he is revived, he is in- 
formed, but he is not convinced. He knows his 
child and has watched him closely — he knows 
perhaps that he is of emotional temperament and 
can be easily influenced. He feels no assurance 
that there is seriousness and depth of conviction. 
He rightly demands evidence that a work of grace 
has been wrought in the child before he consents 
to his baptism. 

2. How shall v/e cooperate with the home and 
the parents in bringing the child to baptism ? 



132 WINNING TO CHRIST 

(i) We shall be reverent and regardful of the 
father and mother. We will remember that they, 
as well as we, are concerned for the spiritual wel- 
fare of the child. We will instruct the child to 
revere and respect the will of his parents. We 
will not baptize the child, nor encourage the child 
to seek baptism, until the consent of the parents 
has been secured. It will be wiser for the child 
to wait and by consistent living convince his 
elders that he is really in earnest, than for him 
to disregard their will. 

(2) We will keep the parents informed as de- 
velopments come. If we are praying for the boy 
and seeking his salvation, we will let the parent 
know of the fact ; if the child asks for prayer or 
confesses the Saviour or makes any other public 
manifestations, we w^ill immediately communicate 
the information to the home. This keeping of 
the parents in closest touch with all of our efforts 
will serve many good purposes and in most cases 
will solve the problem of getting the parents' 
consent to the baptism of the child, when at last 
he is converted. 

(3) We will, if need be, become the child's 
advocate and plead his case with the father and 
mother. It is good for the pastor or teacher to 
sit in the home with the parents and in the pres- 
ence of the child to declare the conviction that 
the child sincerely loves and trusts the Lord. 
"You have trusted Jesu^s, haven't you. Jack?" 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 133 

''And you feel that he has forgiven your sins and 
saved you T' ''Yes, and I beUeve it, too. I have 
watched you these weeks and I think the time 
has come when you otight to be baptized, if your 
father will give his consent, and I hope he will/' 
Evangelistic pastors and other workers could tell 
of fine experience where they have gone out to 
open the way for a timid boy or girl to obedience 
in baptism. 

(4) While we deal with the parent in behalf of 
the child, we will earnestly seek the salvation or 
spiritual welfare of the parent himself. At least 
one pastor has at times felt to rebuke himself for 
his lack of faith and courage to seek the salvation 
of parents while he was zealous for the children. 
This pastor was sitting in a beautiful home plead- 
ing with a mother, who was not herself a believer, 
for permission to baptize her child. The mother 
said, "Preacher, how is it you are so much con- 
cerned about my child, and yet you do not seem 
to take account of the fact that I am myself lost? 
Ever since my child first came home from your 
Sunday school talking about the Saviour and his 
love, my heart has been breaking to become a 
Christian.'' 

The same pastor walked out one Sunday after- 
noon to see a poor drunkard about his boy, and 
to seek consent for the boy to be baptized. The 
child sat on the father's knee while the pastor and 
the father talked the matter over. At length, 



134 WINNING TO CHRIST 

the father asked the boy to go out and play while 
he talked further with the minister. When the 
child was gone, the man turned to the preacher. 
''Yes, you may baptize my boy. But what I want 
to know is, why do you not seem to care about 
me ? Is there no hope for me ; have you no faith 
that I can be saved?'' The season of spiritual 
interest on the part of the child offers a rare 
opportunity to deal with the parent, whether he 
be lost or backslidden in heart. ''A little child 
shall lead them.'' Many a child has led his father 
and mother back to God. 

RESTATEMENT. 

Bringing to Baptism. 
Infant baptism ''is a thing apart." 
I. How early may children come to baptism? 

1. Children vary widely. 

2. Scripture gives no specific direction. 

3. Baptism is a life alignment, 
(i) Hence should come early. 
(2) Should not come too early. 

4 Hebrew lads became ''sons of the law" at twelve. 

5 Scripture and experience favor an early" age for 

baptism. 

6. Recognize and guide them as believers, even 
when baptism must be deferred. 

n. What if parents oppose baptism? 

I. Some explanations of such opposition, 
(i) Parents may be unsaved. 



BRINGING TO BAPTISM 135 

(2) May be backslidden. 

(3) May be uninformed. 

(4) May be uninstructed. 

(5) May be unconvinced. 

2. How cooperate with the home in this matter, 
(i) Respect the parents and teach the child to 
do so. 

(2) Keep parents informed as to what is doing. 

(3) Be the child's advocate with the parent. 

(4) Seek the salvation of the parents at this 

time. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Why is "infant baptism" something entirely apart? 

What two questions may arise in bringing repentant 
children to baptism? 

Why do we not need to raise any question as to age 
in the matter of coming to Jesus? 

What bearing does the wide variation in childrerK 
have on the question as to how early children may be 
baptized? 

What as to specific Scripture direction? 

What cautions grow out of the fact that baptism car- 
ries with it a life alignment? 

Do you favor baptizing repentant children at an early 
age ? Why ? 

What of special recognition of those who for any 
reason must defer baptism? 

Name some reasons why parents may oppose the 
baptism of their children. 

Name four suggestions as to cooperation with the 
home in bringing the child to baptism. 

Why is this a favorable time to make effort for the 
spiritual betterment of parents? 



XII. 
TEACHING CONCERNING THE CHURCH. 

WINNING to Christ is by no means ac- 
complished when we have brought to 
conversion. The process of discipHng is hardly 
complete until we have brought to public con- 
fession. A part of the winning, and a vital part 
of it, is the winning to a right relation to the 
organized work of our Lord, to a right ahgnment 
with his church. We seek to win the child not 
only to Christ as Saviour, but to Christ as a con- 
quering Captain. We seek to save not only the 
child's soul, but to save and enlist his life in the 
army of our King. It means much in the matter 
of Christian character and Christian service that 
the life shall be rightly aligned with the organized 
forces of Christ's earthly kingdom. 

The organization of the forces of the kingdom 
into churches is divinely given and ordered. 

This divinely given organization was born in 
the thought of God, is dear to the heart of God, 
and has been perpetuated by the Spirit of God. 
God thought it and gave it to the world for the 
preservation and propagation of the gospel. 

All that we know of God in nature leads us 
to believe that in giving to men the priceless 
gospel he would give with it and for it a definite 

(136) 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 137 

and suitable form of organization. For every 
phase of life God has with infinite pains and wis- 
dom given a special type of organization for its 
encasing and protection. It is a matter of cease- 
less interest to trace out in nature these outward 
forms which inclose and protect life. Is it to be 
supposed that in giving the gospel which is to be 
the life of the world, God will be indifferent to 
the forms of organization by which that life is 
to be encased and through which it is offered to 
men? 

Moreover, outward organization reflects the 
life which it encloses. There is always a fine 
correspondence between the life and the forms 
which encase it. Indeed, the inward life produces 
and thus determines the outward organization. 
The scientist can readily go from the animal to 
the shell which constitutes its home, or vice versa. 
He can go from the seed to the casing or vice 
versa. The gospel makes and requires for itself 
certain forms of organization. These forms be- 
come an essential part of the gospel itself. The 
life planted by Jesus and augmented at Pentecost 
grew its own forms of organization. We are 
permitted to see this growth and to note this 
progress in the Acts and the Epistles. These 
forms of organization are the more vital and 
sacred, the more rigidly to be adhered to, because 
they are the growth and product of the gospel 
and are thus part and parcel of the gospel. 



138 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Surely, the questions of church, organization, of 
church officers, of the ordinances, are not to be 
determined by caprice or whim, nor are they in 
any wise to be Hghtly regarded. 

Baptist doctrines make Baptist pohty. Catholic 
doctrines make Catholic polity. Believing as they 
do concerning the individual conscience and con- 
cerning the inspiration and authority of the 
Scriptures, Baptists must of necessity maintain 
the forms of organization which grow out of 
these beliefs. Believing as Catholics do in these 
matters, it is inevitable that their organized life 
should reflect their beliefs. 

It is also true that organization affects the 
truth which it expresses. It is impossible to 
change the forms of organization without affect- 
ing the doctrines involved in such forms. A 
change of view as to the content of the ordinance 
of baptism was both the cause and the effect of 
the change made in certain quarters in the mode 
of its administration. Changing the mode of 
baptism has changed the conception of certain 
doctrines involved in baptism. Changes in 
church government or church ordinances affect, 
as all history attests, the doctrines which under- 
lie these things. 

''Where did the church come from? This 
question points to the beginning of individual 
churches, not of The Church,' as the phrase goes, 
and which is purely a growth in history much 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 139 

this side of the New Testament period and con- 
trary to both the teaching and spirit of the New 
Testament. 

"The church is here because, hke the family, 
God thought it, planned it after his own choosing, 
commanded it through his own appointed 
agencies, and set it for the high mission of work- 
ing out his providence and grace. 

''As he hath set the solitary in families, so also 
hath he set the saved in churches, and made the 
church the embodiment of his work of grace 
and the expression of his kingdom among men'' 
{Dr, 7. M. Frost, in ''Our Church Life''). 

It is possible to knozv what is this divinely 
given organization. Every consideration which 
goes to prove that there is such an organization 
goes also to bind us to the belief that God will 
make it clear to us in his Word. In the Acts and 
the Epistles, where the organization grows before 
our eyes, we have for our guidance both precept 
and precedent.' We may by a little patient effort 
make out the divine model. Then we may take 
the many and conflicting claimants of our day 
and put them down on this model. The one 
among them all which most nearly conforms to 
the original must command our adherence. 

// is both duty and privilege to guide the young 
into alliance and alignment zvith the Nezv Testa- 
ment chttrch. Certainlv we will not coerce nor 



140 WINNING TO CHRIST 

seek to wield any undue influence. Nor will we 
seal our lips and withhold instruction in these 
grave matters. There are those who, fearing 
to abridge the right of individual choice, insist 
that we must not influence the growing child as 
regards the church. But we are accustomed in 
ever}' line of life to guide the young life toward 
the things which we count high and right. This 
is a responsibility which each generation must 
assume for the growing generation. 

In these grave matters of church alignment, 
we may not leave our youth to chance or caprice ; 
we may not leave them in their immaturity with- 
out guidance and instruction. The parent, the 
pastor, the teacher, must be faithful in guiding 
and instructing concerning these vital questions. 

When one has been approved for baptism and 
is looking toward the ordinance, his heart is 
peculiarly open to instruction concerning the 
church and its ordinances. This has from the 
earliest Christian centuries been regarded as a 
favorable time for such instruction. Young con- 
verts may be formed into classes and given care- 
ful and systematic instruction. All of the denom- 
inational publishing houses are prepared to fur- 
nish catechisms or brief treatises for this purpose. 
It will suffice here to outline the instruction most 
needed, assuming, of course, that instruction has 
already been given in the vital truths of the 
gospel. 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 141 

Teach concerning the church. The child is 
soon to take his place in the church. His heart 
is filled with sacred reverence for the great things 
to which he is coming. Perhaps never again will 
he be just quite so eager to learn of these sacred 
things. The impressions made now he will carry 
through life. Master the following great 
thoughts with reference to the church taken from 
''Our Church Life," by Dr. J. M. Frost, and pass 
them on to the child : 

1. God gave the church. ~ 

'The church is here because, like the family, 
God thought it, planned it after his own choosing, 
commanded it through his own appointed 
agencies, and set it for the high mission of work- 
ing out his providence and grace. 

'Tt is entirely scriptural and accordant with all 
the facts, to count the church as emanating from 
the creative energy of God. Concerning the 
mountains and the stars and all created things, 
God spoke the word and it was done ; so concern- 
ing the church, as concerning the family also, 
God commanded and these came into being — the 
family first in point of time and then the church 
taking its place as God's creation and appoint- 
ment for the good of mankind and his glory 
among men." 

2. God gave the church to be a voice for him- 
self. 



142 WINNING TO CHRIST 

''A church stands for God in Christ, and for 
the kingdom of God among men. This is dis- 
tinct and basal in its very structure. Nature is 
a revelation of God. But in the church, in the 
making of the church, there is additional reve- 
lation of himself. 

'Tts worship is the worship of God, who is 
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won- 
ders. In receiving members, the church declares 
what God hath wrought in the working of his 
grace; in its ordinations, whether of deacons or 
of preachers, while imparting nothing of grace 
or gift, the church yet recognizes God's choice 
and declares his call for these men ; its very house 
of worship has become the house of God; its 
ordinances are declarative of what God hath 
done; and its preaching of the gospel is but 
proclaiming the kingdom of God as his mighty 
witness among the nations of the earth. These 
things in its life and work and ordinances, make 
the church a voice for God.'' 

3. Christ purchased the church with his own 
blood. 

''God's plan and purpose named the purchase 
price, which Christ freely paid in the shedding 
of his blood on the cross. The price is of infinite 
worth and unwasting fullness. 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 143 

'Thou dying Lamb, thy precious blood 
Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransomed church of God 
Be saved to sin no more." 

4. Gk)d has preserved and perpetuated the 
church throughout the ages. 

'The persistence of the church commands our 
attention and awakens our song. The church 
persists because of the keeping power of God, 
and this is in line with the fulfillment of his 
promise. 

5. A New Testament church is composed of 
those who, upon a public confession of repentance 
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
have been baptized into the name of the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. New Testa- 
ment churches had in their membership only bap- 
tized believers. 

6. The church officers set forth in the New 
Testament are two — pastors (or elders) and 
deacons (Phil, i : i). 

7. The special ordinances of the New Testa- 
ment were two, baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

Teach concerning baptism. The child is 
shortly to be baptized. This event is to stand 
out in his memory ever afterward with increas- 
ing sacredness and beauty. He hungers now to 
know its deep, sweet significance. All too many 
believers could tell how after conversion thev 



144 WINNING TO CHRIST 

were hurried on to baptism without being in- 
structed either in its sacredness or its meaning. 
A Christian worker whose fame is in all the 
churches said, 'If only someone had taken me 
when I was awaiting baptism and had told me 
its deep and blessed significance! Such instruc- 
tion at that time might have impressed my whole 
after life/' 

We will need to instruct as to the mode of 
baptism. Why should the child be left to get 
his impressions on this subject from the conver- 
sations of the street or of the playground? 
Read to him the story of our Lord's baptism 
(Mark i : 9, 10), and lead him to draw his own 
conclusions as to what baptism was in New Tes- 
tament times. 

Have him read aloud the story of the baptism 
of the Ethiopian treasurer (Acts 8: 38, 39), in 
which the Holy Spirit is at pains to describe for 
us with much vividness the act of baptism. Ask 
him to look with you at the great passage (Ro- 
mans 6:4), where the Spirit declares we are 
"buried with Christ by baptism into death." 

The young believer ought to be instructed both 
as to the act and the design of baptism. In im- 
parting such instruction the following outline 
taken from *A Confession of Faith," by F. H. 
Kerfoot, may be used : 

''i. As to the act, it is immersion in water. 
Read Acts 8 : 38, 39. 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 145 

"2. As to the design : 

*'(i) It is a confession of Jesus Christ our 
Saviour and of our allegiance to the triune of 
God. Read Gal. 3 : 2y. 

''(2) It is the answer of a good conscience 
toward God. Read i Peter 3: 21. 

''(3) It is the symbol by the washing of water 
of the inward cleansing. Read Titus 3:5. 

''(4) It is a symbol of our having been buried 
to a life of willful sinfulness and of our having 
been raised again to walk in newness of life on 
earth. Read Rom. 6: 3-5. 

"(5) It is the symbol of our having died with 
Jesus Christ, and of our having been raised 
with him into a life of acceptance before God; 
and also of our final resurrection with him to life 
everlasting. Hence, we reject the doctrine of 
sprinkling and pouring for baptism, as the set- 
ting aside of the true ordinance, both as to the 
act and its signification, and the substitution 
therefor of human tradition. Read Col. 2 : 12." 

Teach concerning the Lord's Supper, The 
young convert should be instructed as regards 
the Memorial Supper of our Lord. A minister 
thus describes his own first coming to the table : 
'M knew somehow that having been baptized, I 
was at liberty to partake of the Supper, though 
no one mentioned the matter and no special invi- 
tation was given. I sat back in the church and 
wondered if the deacon would come my way. I 
10 



146 WINNING TC CHRIST 

had no intelligent idea of what it all meant, and 
am fearful that that first communion was not the 
means of grace it should have been." Contrast 
this experience with that of another Christian 
worker: '1 had been instructed with much care 
as to what the Supper meant. My heart was 
filled with the thought that the bread before me 
spoke of my Lord's body and the wine of his 
blood, and that in partaking I was to do so as a 
memorial, a reminder, of my Saviour's death. 
Along with others recently baptized I was asked 
to sit at the front ; the arms of the church seemed 
to be about us. The pastor gave a warm welcome 
and the elements were passed to us first. I can 
never quite get away from the sweetness of that 
first blessed hour at the Lord's table." 

The following taken also from Dr. F. H. Ker- 
foot, may serve as a guide in teaching concerning 
the Supper: 

1. What the Supper is : 

"A memorial ordinance, intrusted to the 
churches to commemorate the offering of the 
Lord's body and his shed blood till he comes." 

2. Preceded by baptism. 

''A careful examination of these ordinances as 
appointed by Christ, and of their essential mean- 
ing, and of the way in which they are observed 
by the apostles, will show that baptism, which is 
administered but once and for all time, should 
precede the Lord's Supper." 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 147 

3. The unbaptized not to be invited. 

''And inasmuch as God's Word gives us no 
warrant whatever for inviting unbaptized persons 
to the table, which is the Lord's table, we dare 
not allow our Christian sympathies to lead us into 
giving such invitations, lest we be found changing 
the order of God's Word and ministering to the 
confusion and obscurity of God's truth." 

4. Not to decide questions of fellowship. 
''We reject the idea that the Lord's Supper 

is designed to celebrate love among Christians, 
or is an ordinance for deciding questions of fel- 
lowship either in an individual church or between 
churches." 

5. Our duty is plain. 

"In declining to invite members of other de- 
nominations, we do not question their piety at all, 
but only declare that we believe them according 
to the example and command of Christ, to be un- 
baptized persons and not walking in the New^ 
Testament order of ordinances. Read i Cor. ii : 
17-34. 

"And for this, as in all things, we appeal to the 
Bible. 

"May the Lord give light and knowledge and 
the Spirit of the Covenant." 



148 WINNING TO CHRIST 

RESTATEMENT. 

Win not only to* confession of Christ, but to align- 
ment with his organized kingdom. 

I. There is a divinely given organization. 

11. It is possible to know what this is. 

III. It is our duty to guide the young here. 

IV. Teach concerning the church. 

1. God gave it. 

2. As a voice for himself. 

3. Purchased it with his own blood. 

4. Has preserved and perpetuated it. 

5. Is composed of baptized believers. 

6. Officers : Pastors and deacons. 

7. Ordinances : Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
V. Teach concerning baptism. 

1. Its act. 

2. Its design. 

VI. Teach concerning the Supper. 

1. A memorial ordinance. 

2. Preceded by baptism. 

3. The unbaptized not to be invited. 

4. Not to decide questions of fellowship. 

5. Our duty is plain. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

In winning to Christ, what ought to follow con- 
version? 

Why should we expect that God would give a definite 
organization for his kingdom? Why is this question 



CONCERNING THE CHURCH 149 

of organization of vital moment? Where did the 
church come from? 

Where do we learn concerning the nature and organ- 
ization of churches? 

What as to our duty to guide the young in the matter 
of church alignment? What of their special instruc- 
tion at the season of baptism? 

Name with brief discussion each of the four state- 
ments concerning the church. 

How may we best teach as 'to the mode of baptism? 
What does baptism signify? What as to the dignity 
of the ordinance? 

Why teach young converts concerning the Supper? 
What shall we teach them as to this ordinance? 



XIII. 

INTERPRETING TO THE YOUNG 

BELIEVER HIS RELIGIOUS 

EXPERIENCE. 

IT is a high privilege to walk with a growing 
child and to interpret to him the voice of 
God. When the open voice of Jehovah came first 
to the child Samuel, he was deeply perplexed. 
Turning confidently to the aged Eli, he sought 
for guidance and explanation. Nothing could 
more reflect credit upon the noble prophet than 
the freeness with which the child turned to him 
for an interpretation of the mysterious voice. 
Happy are we and the children about us if we 
can keep open the door between them and us, 
and if we can sustain such relation to them as 
will invite them to bring to us their spiritual 
perplexities. ''Now, Samuel did not yet know 
the Lord, neither was the Lord yet revealed unto 
him.'' Eli was himself a bit dull at first, but grad- 
ually it dawned upon him that the Lord w^as man- 
ifesting himself to the child, and he hastened to 
interpret to the child the things of God. 

Others will be found to walk with the youth 
and to interpret to him life in its various phases ; 
it is for the pastor and teacher to walk with him 
and interpret to him his religious experiences. 

(150) 



INTERPRETING TO THE YOUNG 151 

Especially are we to interpret to the child the great 
religious experience by which he came into fellow- 
ship with God and became partaker of his grace. 
All the after years will be a deepening revela- 
tion of what God wrought in that first mighty 
work of grace. In class, in conversation and else- 
where, we may teach as follows regarding reli- 
gious experiences: 

I. No two persons will have the same experi- 
ence in coming to Christ. In the final analysis 
the same things take place in every case, but the 
manifestation, the developments, the feelings, 
will vary widely. A young believer who did not 
understand this suffered much and serious mis- 
giving. He had a quiet experience, the 'sense of 
forgiveness coming to him as comes the morning 
light. When in the ''love feasts'' he heard others 
tell of the glorious dealings of the Lord with 
them, he was plunged into doubt and sometimes 
said, ''If this is the way people are converted, 
I think I was never converted. I never had any 
wonderful experience like that.'' And many 
times he went away from such meetings heavy 
at heart and utterly cast down. He needed to 
know that no two people have the same experi- 
ence and that there are widely varying types of 
experience. 

Moreover, those to whom the Lord has given 
a remarkable and striking experience are forward 
to relate their experience. Paul who was met by 



152 WINNING TO CHRIST 

the Lord on the Damascus road and stricken 
down by the bright Hght which exceeded even 
the brightness of the eastern sun, was always 
pleased to tell of the Lord's dealings with him 
in the matter of his conversion. Peter and John 
came by a gradual process to the high ground 
which Paul reached at one bound. It is signifi- 
cant that neither Peter nor John ever narrated 
in detail their experience of grace. When there 
is nothing startling and extraordinary in con- 
version, there can be no special disposition to tell 
of it. Hence, it falls out that when opportunity 
is given to bear witness those who have some- 
thing unusual to relate are first on their feet, 
while others are silent. The young believer re- 
ferred to above did not appreciate this fact, and 
he took it for granted that the wonderful experi- 
ences he heard related were typical of all normal 
experiences. It brought him a sense of relief 
when it dawned on him that the experiences he 
heard related were for the most part exceptional 
and that the great number of believers had, like 
himself, a quiet awakening. 

2. In coming to Christ a sense of forgiveness 
may come either gradually or suddenly. In a 
word, there are two types of experience, the 
distinct and sudden change, such as came to Saul 
of Tarsus on the Damascus road when the light 
shone out of heaven ; and the easy, gradual 
change, such as came to Lydia, 'Svhose heart the 



INTERPRETING TO THE YOUNG 153 

Lord opened that she attended unto the thing's 
spoken by Paul/' 

The only illustration given in the Bible of the 
new birth is in John 3:8: '"The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of 
the Spirit.'' Jesus likens the change wrought by 
the Spirit to wind; an illustration so clear and 
suggestive that we cannot regret that he never 
gave any other. And what is wind? It may 
be the sweeping tornado which upturns houses 
and uproots trees; it may be the gentle zephyr 
so quiet that you are hardly sure it has touched 
you. The tornado and the zephyr and all the 
stages between are wind, ''So is everyone that 
is born of the Spirit." Saul of Tarsus had the 
tornado type of experience ; Lydia had the zephyr 
type. 

Dr. B. H. Carroll has illustrated these extreme 
types thus : Two men got off a train on the 
Western plains in the very early morning. One 
of them spread out his blanket and lay down to 
sleep. The other man walked back and forth 
watching the eastern horizon for signs of the ris- 
ing sun. After a time the sky reddened and the 
sun gradually rose clear and bright. When the 
sun was well up he aroused his companion, who 
awoke Vv^ith a start. Now ask the two men when 
the sun rose. One will take out his watch and 



154 WINNING TO CHRIST 

tell you the very minute when his eyes first beheld 
the sun. The other will tell of a long vigil, of a 
gradual rising, and will be unable to designate 
any special moment. 

Another has illustrated the fact of these various 
types of experience in this way; Jesus healed 
three blind men, many more, but for our present 
purpose we consider three. One of these came 
and said, ''Lord, that I may receive my sight,'' 
and instantly the Lord spoke the healing word 
and the man saw. In another case Jesus led the 
blind man out of the city, and spitting on the 
ground, made clay and anointed his eyes. ''Can 
you 'see ?" and the man said, 'T see men as trees 
walking.'' Jesus repeated the process, and the 
man cried, "I see clearly !" In yet another case 
Jesus anointed the eyes of one born blind and 
said, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam." Away 
the man went, groping his way, off to Siloam's 
pool, and, kneeling down, he bathed his eyes, and, 
lo, sight came, and he saw all. things clearly! 

Now, let us have these men on the front seat 
to relate their experiences. The first one starts 
off: 'T can take you to the very place and tell 
you the exact time." The next man shrugs his 
shoulders, and says : "Well, that's strange ; it 
didn't come to me that way." And the third 
cries : "Both of you are wrong ; it came to me 
after this fashion — " After all, what difference 
makes it how or when or where it came, just 'so 
it came? 



INTERPRETING TO THE YOUNG 155 

3. In an experience of grace either joy or sor- 
rozv may predominate. It is a mistake and hurt- 
ful to suppose that our coming to the Lord will 
necessarily bring great joy. It ought to bring 
joy; will always bring some measure of joy, 
but it may bring 'soTrow and this sorrow 
may predominate. Many w^ho come to the Sa- 
viour are possessed and smitten with the thought 
of Christ's suffering and of how they have 
wronged him, and these thoughts wiring tears 
from their hearts. Such sorrow can hardly be 
said to be less normal than great joy. 

4. The experience of the child will likely differ 
from that of the adult. Has there been some 
disposition to force the child into the mold of the 
adult? Jesus said, ''Except ye be converted and 
become as a little child.'' With him, it was ''back 
to childhood;" the adult must become a child 
again. Do we have it, "Except ye be converted 
and become as an adult"? Are we disposed to 
expect and exact that the child shall have the 
experience of the man ? 

The child's experience of grace will probably 
be quiet, like a gentle zephyr. A sense of his 
own sinfulness and need will be awakened by 
the Spirit and a resolve to accept Christ as Sa- 
viour will form perhaps so gradually that the 
child will be unable to give any specific time as 
the beginning of the new life. E. G. Robinson, 
quoted by A. H. Strong, says, "The object of 



156 WIXXIXG TO CHRIST 

revivals is to produce a sound rather than an 
emotional experience. Revivals of religion are 
valuable in just the proportion in which they 
produce rational conviction and permanently 
righteous action." 

And yet it ought to be said that to some 
children with even the best Christian training 
there may come deep and poignant conviction 
for sin with severe and prolonged struggle. Dr. 
J. ^I. Frost tells of the experience of two sisters 
reared in the home of a devout minister. To one 
of them there came a sense of sin and a persuasive 
sense of God's love and his offer of forgiveness. 
It was all so quiet the child could never say at 
what time or how it occurred. To the other 
sister, near the same age, came, on the way home 
from church, a crushing and awful sense of sin. 
She begged to be taken back that very hour to 
the old country church. Far into the night her 
preacher-father and others prayed with her and 
instructed her until the light came, came in a 
mighty flood, and she rejoiced in a Saviour's love. 

It will be well to give young people careful in- 
struction concerning the fact of this possible vari- 
ety of experience in coming to the Lord. 

5. There may be later experiences in Christ 
deeper and szceeter than the initial coming to him. 
It is an unhappy wife who for assurance of her 
husband's love must go back to courtship days 
and to the words and letters of those earlier times. 



INTERPRETING TO THE YOUNG 157 

That believer is in a sad state who for assurance 
of acceptance with his Lord must needs be for- 
ever going back through the years to some long- 
past experience. We are told that sometimes a 
blow on the head may cause a lapse of memory, 
perhaps may cause to drop out from memory a 
section or period of life ; a certain year or a period 
of years may become a blank. If such a blow 
should befall one of these friends who relies upon 
a past bit of experience with the Lord and the 
year containing that bit of dealing were dropped 
out — . 

There ought to be seasons of the Lord's near- 
ness and experiences of his grace such as will 
eclipse any early joy experienced in coming to 
him. 

6. When zve relate our experiences we uncon- 
sciously read back into them the larger and clearer 
viezvs which have come to its through the passing 
years. A young Christian hears the mature 
believer relate his first coming to the Saviour. 
The younger person takes it for granted that the 
other felt and knew at the time all that he now 
describes. As a matter of fact, while the now 
mature believer experienced all that he describes 
he did not at the time know of these things. He 
reads back into the story much that he has gath- 
ered up along the way. It may be comforting for 
our young people to have this fact explained to 
them. 



158 WINNING TO CHRIST 

RESTATEMENT. 

Concerning experiences of grace. 

I. No two are alike. 

IL May be either gradual or sudden. 
III. Joy or sorrow may predominate. 
IV. Child and adult differ. 

V. Later experiences may be deeper and sweeter. 

VI. In relating them we read back later views and 
visions. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Show how the example of Jesus encourages care 
and culture after conversion. 

Name without discussion the six teachings suggested 
as suitable for young believers. 

Why is it needful to teach that no two persons will 
have the same experience in coming to Christ? 

Describe two types of experience. Give an illustra- 
tion to show that the sense of forgiveness may come 
either suddenly or gradually. 

"In an experience of grace either joy or sorrow may 
predominate." Show what is meant by this statement. 

''The experience of a child is not likely to be like 
that of an adult." Explain and justify this statement. 

What of later experiences which may come in the 
service of the Lord? 

Why may it comfort young believers to know that 
older Christians unconsciously read back into their 
experience of grace the larger views and visions of the 
passing years? 



XIV. 
DEALING WITH YOUTHFUL DOUBT. 

AS we walk along the way with young l)e- 
lievers we will need to guide and instruct 
them in the matter of their doubts. Happy are 
we if we can stand so close to them and so hold 
their confidence that they will freely open their 
hearts to us and give us the opportunity to help 
them in these critical times. No more difficult 
and delicate task comes to the Christian worker 
than this of dealing with youthful doubt. 

It is a well recognized fact that sooner or 
later there is almost sure to come in adolescence 
a more or less prolonged season of doubting. 'Tn 
order to make a man of him nature draws him 
apart, bids him examine and make sure of his 
foundations, sets him over against his entire en- 
vironment and makes him doubt and question 
and criticise that world in which he finds him- 
self.' ' Before this time he has generally accepted 
without question opinions and information which 
have been handed out to him. With his discovery 
of himself and the awakening of his powers, he 
swings out from the matter-of-fact age and the 
taking-for-granted age and begins to challenge 
and question all things. These difficulties and 
doubts are very real to youth, and we may not 

(159) 



160 WIXXIXG TO CHRIST 

fail to take them seriously. They are pressing 
out into regions untried, in paths hitherto untrod. 
Strangers in a strange world, there can be no 
wonder that they have doubts and misgivings and 
difficulties. This experience of doubt begins usu- 
ally about the time of the entrance upon the 
''teen'' age and is likely to reach its climax in the 
normal youth before he reaches twenty. 

Certain types of doubt are somewhat clearly 
defined, chief among them being the emotional, 
the intellectual and the religious. The least seri- 
ous of these types of doubt is that which is emo- 
tional and superficial. It grows for the most part 
out of certain physical and nervous reconstruc- 
tions which are taking place. It wall suffice to 
restore equilibrium, to divert the mind and to 
set at practical tasks which will occupy and in- 
terest. 

A more serious type of doubt rs the intellectual, 
a persistent mental attitude of question and criti- 
cism. "The ready-made world of custom, rule 
and convention is now required to justify itself 
to the mind of the youth, and if it be not founded 
upon the everlasting rocks he will find it out and 
go delving for a better foundation.'^ At this time 
the youth is likely to feel himself wiser than all 
of his elders, and his quiet assumption of intel- 
lectual superiority over parents, elders and an- 
cients alike, is somewhat exasperating. At this, 
time he grows restless under the restraints of 



DEALING WITH YOUTHFUL DOUBT 161 

home, and frequently finds himself possessed by 
an almost irresistible impulse to leave the parental 
roof and go out into the world for himself. All 
of this is incidental to development and calls for 
the utmost of wise and patient dealing. 

Along with this intellectual upheaval and dis- 
turbance and closely related to it is the doubt 
which we have designated as religious. The 
adolescent boy may wake up some morning with 
questions and sneers for the whole body of teach- 
ing which he has held from childhood. He rebels 
against religion and against all religious re- 
straints. Perhaps he is communicative and 
frankly declares his doubts, to the grief of his 
parents and the consternation of his elders. Pos- 
sibly he will be secretive and will carefully con- 
ceal his difficulties even from those nearest to 
him. Happy the youth who has parent or teacher 
or friend who is able to elicit his confidence and 
guide him through this critical time. These 
doubts are not to be lightly dealt with ; they will 
hardly vani'sh before laughter or ridicule. The 
frail bark may make shipwreck or harm may 
come into the life which will abide in all the after 
years. The youth has probably come on a time 
when he will be satisfied with nothing less than 
weighty arguments and solid reasoning. 

Above all, the youth needs at this time a com- 
manding personality to walk with him and to 
steady him in these unsteady times; one who 
11 



162 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



believes strongly and confidently in the deep 
things of God. Such a personality has been the 
blessing and the salvation of uncounted thousands 
of youths. 

A phase of doubt with which Christian workers 
are frequently called to deal concerns the ques- 
tion of personal acceptance with the Lord. Many 
who do not question the deep things of the 
Christian faith are yet distressed concerning their 
own experience of grace and are harassed with 
doubts as to whether they have themselves been 
saved. It may be helpful to consider some things 
vvhich contribute to such doubts. 

These doubts may grow out of the habit of 
introspection. Young people are prone to look 
much within, to consider unduly their own frames 
and feelings. In the matter of our personal sal- 
vation, scant comfort can come from looking 
within. The basis of our hope and our assurance 
lies not within us, in any merit or any feelings 
or experiences of our own. Such basis is in the 
love of God and in the atonement wrought out on 
the cross. Full assurance will come to the youth- 
ful believer as he is taught and trained to look 
away from himself, to give over the habits of 
introspection to which he is tempted and to rely 
upon the unchangeable love and promise of the 
Lord. 

Doubt may come of idleness in the kingdom. 
Joyful assurance is impossible to us if we are not 



DEALING WITH YOUTHFUL DOUBT 163 

engaged in the things of the Master. The only 
sure proof that we are followers of Jesus lies in 
the fact that we are actually following; the best 
evidence that we are servants of the Lord lies 
in the fact that we are actually serving him. "The 
only way to be happy in Jesus is to trust and 
obey.'' A young man came to his pastor and said, 
'T give it up ; I think I was never converted. I 
wish you would have my name stricken from the 
church roll.'' The wise pastor replied, ''Very 
well, we will see about that. Meantime, this 
is a busy day with me. I want you to help me. 
I was going to take this basket of groceries to 

Widow C , but I am called away on another 

mission. Will you go for me?" Certainly he 
would go. ''But what that widow and those chil- 
dren need more than the groceries is a vision of 
God and a message from his Word. I want you 
to take this Testament and read and pray in that 
home." The youth protested, declaring that he 
had never done such a thing. The pastor replied, 
"They are poor and ignorant ; you can easily ren- 
der this service. Promise me that you will read 
and pray with them. I cannot let you take the 
groceries unless you will do so." The promise 
was reluctantly made. The boy's heart was 
touched to see the joy of the widow and the glad- 
ness of the children as they opened the basket. 
He said blushingly, "I promi'sed the pastor I 
would read and pray. If the children will sit 



164 WINNING TO CHRIST 

down I will do the best I can." He read about 
the Father's house where the many mansions are. 
As he read his eye stole a furtive glance around 
the poor, bare room, and the word of Jesus about 
the mansions seemed sweeter than ever before. 
Then they knelt to pray, and while the young 
man poured out his heart in prayer, the angels 
seemed to be hovering near. The young man 
walked out of that home with a sense of God's 
presence and goodness which he had never felt 
before. 

jMeeting the pastor later in the day, the youth 
who had lost assurance and had decided to drop 
out of the church, made report, 'Tastor, I did 
what I promised ; I read and prayed in that home 
and the Lord blessed us. When you want gro- 
ceries delivered to a home like that, call on me. 
And, pastor, you need not say anything for the 
present about taking my name ofif the church 
book." 

Put the doubter to work ; give him some serious 
task for the Lord and for his fellows. When the 
doubter gets to work and warms to his tasks he 
ceases to doubt. These young Christians long 
to serve; they are in the restless, energetic age. 
Scarce any crime against them is greater than 
to leave them idle when they so desire to serve 
and when their service is so greatly needed. x\las, 
that so often these restless, energetic spirits are 
left without suitable tasks. 



DEALING WITH YOUTHFUL DOUBT 165 

Assurance of acceptance with the Lord may 
be destroyed by the doing of doubtful things. 
Whoever does doubtful things will doubt. If 
we insist upon living close upon the border line 
between the church and the world^ if we persist 
in going as far as we dare toward the things of 
the old life, we may not be surprised if at times 
we find ourselves in doubt as to which side of 
the line we are really on. Take for illustration a 
bit of incident which is related as occurring in 
Bristol, Tenn.-Va. The city lies on the border 
between the two states, the state line running 
down the main street of the city. A big sheriff 
on the Virginia side undertook to arrest a man 
for some misdemeanor. The man slipped acros^5 
the state line and, 'safely out of the sheriff 's juris- 
diction, turned to laugh at the expense of the 
big sheriff. The officer was equal to the occa- 
sion; assimiing a friendly air, he said, '']o^^ old 
fellow, I was wrong to think of arresting you for 
so small a matter. Shake, and let's be friends V 
Caught completely off his guard, the man walked 
up to the sheriff and clasped his hand. Instantly 
the sheriff's hand closed like a vise ; there was a 
brief struggle, and the sheriff safely landed his 
man. If we play tag with Satan across the 
boundary line we are almost sure to be landed into 
the camp of his Satanic Majesty. If we do not so 
fare we must at least be disturbed and beset with 
doubt as to whether we really belong in the 
camps of the Lord. 



166 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



Another fruitful source of doubt concerning 
our personal acceptance with the Lord is the 
habit of comparing our ozvn religions experience 
with the experiences of other people. In experi- 
ence meetings and elsewhere we sit and hear the 
wonderful dealings of God with other souls and 
because, forsooth, there were not given to us 
visions so clear and joys so marked we are prone 
to question whether ours is a genuine experience 
of grace. In the last chapter we considered at 
some length this question of varying religious 
experiences. 

RESTATEMENT. 

Dealing with Youthful Doubt. 



Adolescence, the time for doubt. 

I. Three types of doubt. 
(i) Emotional. 

(2) Intellectual. 

(3) Religious. 

11. Doubt as to personal acceptance due to- 
(i) Habit of introspection. 

(2) Idleness in the kingdom. 

(3) Doing doubtful things. 

(4) Comparing religious experiences. 



DEALING WITH YOUTHFUL DOUBT 167 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Why are experiences of doubt likely to come in 
adolescence ? 

At what ages especially are such experiences of doubt 
to be expected? 

What is the origin of emotional doubt and what is 
the remedy? 

What of the intellectual doubt of this period, and 
how is it to be regarded? 

What is the supreme need in the matter of religious 
doubt ? 

With what phase of doubt are Christian workers 
most often called to deal? 

How does introspection tend to destroy the assurance 
of faith? 

How does idleness in the kingdom produce doubt? 

Why does doing doubtful things produce doubt? 



XV. 
AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS. 

CHRISTIAN workers have long recognized 
that young people, and particularly young 
Christians, meet special peril in the pleasure zone. 
The restraints of the home, the burdens of busi- 
ness, the pressure of serious pursuits, have a 
steadying influence. It is in the pleasure zone 
where burdens are laid off and where restraints 
are somewhat relaxed that temptation especially 
assails. Young Christians in great number go 
astray in their religious life at the f>oint of amuse- 
ments. 

Many young people are kept out of the king- 
dom and the church because they find themselves 
out of agreement with what they understand to 
be the standard of the church regarding certain 
worldly indulgence. Others who come under 
conviction for sin are deterred from surrender by 
difficulty concerning certain social customs. Yet 
others who had a genuine religious experience 
and have served the Lord are caught in currents 
of worldly pleasure and are swept away from the 
church and Christian service. There are not 
wanting those who love the church and indulge 
no thought of breaking with its service, who yet 
find themselves out of harmony with the position 
(i68) 



AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS 169 

and attitude which Christian people assume 
toward certain amusements. In a word, young 
people in great numbers are being kept from 
Christ or are being dwarfed in their religious Hfe 
by the influences of certain social indulgences. 
The situation becomes the more grave in view of 
the fact that these social problems affect most 
vitally the brightest and most influential of our 
youth; the young man who has social gifts, the 
young woman who possesses beauty and social 
charm, the young men and women who might 
shine brightest for Christ, are in preeminent 
danger. Surely, those who would win our youth 
to the service of Christ must concern themselves 
with these questions and must walk with our 
young people and guide them in this realm. 

As making 'some possible contributions toward 
a solution of these problems, the following obser- 
vations deserve to be considered. 

When it is found necessary to oppose or pro- 
hibit certain amusements, we must leave no im- 
pression that we lack sympathy ivith the pleasure 
interests of our young people. The pastor who 
shows no concern for the social pleasures of his 
young people save to condemn wrong indulgences 
will hardly command a sympathetic hearing for 
his words of condemnation. Pleasure is not in 
itself wrong ; it is God's choice gift and provision 
for an imperative need of our nature. These 
young people are in the pleasure-seeking period. 



170 WINNING TO CHRIST 

Play and amusements form a necessary place in 
their lives and may contribute not only to their 
happiness but to their development and v^ell- 
being-. The discussion of these problems calls 
for both sympathy and sanity. Extreme posi- 
tions, harsh statements, abusive language, have 
no proper place here. This has sometimes been 
an arena for abuse and assertion, rather than for 
faithful and intelligent Christian persuasion. If 
our cause is just and our positions well taken, 
we ought to be able to convince and persuade. 

In the question of aimisements^ as in all other 
matters^ young people require guidance and lead- 
ing toward the right quite as much as restraint 
and prohibition regarding the wro7ig. The old 
principle of positive, rather than negative, teach- 
ing obtains here as everywhere else in dealing 
with young life. If we can only lead to innocent 
and wholesome pleasures we need not be much 
concerned about unwholesome and hurtful pleas- 
ures. 

While a pastor was making a visit the small 
boy came in, as usual, hungry. Being hungry, 
he made straight for what had been a plate of 
apples ; only or or two poor specimens remained. 
As the mother saw what was happening, she 
cried, ''Don't, my boy ; don't eat those bad apples." 
But the boy was hungry, and there seemed to be 
nothing better in sight, so he persisted. It looked 
as if there might be a domestic storm, and the 



AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS 171 

pastor was getting ready to depart. About that 
time a bright idea struck the distressed mother. 
SHpping out of the room, 'she came back presently 
with a plate of large, red apples, and set them 
down on the table beside the poor, stunted apples. 
From that moment the boy obeyed his mother im- 
plicitly, and to the end lof that visit the boy made 
no move to touch the bad apples. 

If we would win our young people from harm- 
ful amusements, we will do well to provide for 
them innocent and healthful amusements. It has 
been suggested that better results might have 
been obtained if our churches and pastors and 
deacons had spent more energy in providing nor- 
mal and innocent pleasures along with their com- 
mendable efforts to check or prevent certain 
questionable indulgences. 

We ought to make careful distinction between 
moral wrong and spiritual harm. There are cer- 
tain indulgences which may not involve moral 
wrong, which yet do certainly bring spiritual 
harm. You may sharpen a lead pencil with a 
razor and perhaps do no moral wrong, but your 
razor would nevertheless suffer serious harm. 
That skilled pianist may use hands and fingers in 
rough work without doing moral wrong or vio- 
lating one of the commandments, but he will find 
his ability to manipulate the piano sadly impaired. 
If we aspire to keep a keen edge on our spiritual 
life, if we long to bring heaven's sweet music 



172 WINNING TO CHRIST 

down to men, we will find that we must consider 
questions of spiritual harm as well as questions 
of actual moral wrong. 

We may not be able to show young people the 
moral wrong that lurks in certain amusements; 
indeed, we may not even wish them to know con- 
cerning that moral wrong, but we can show them 
that the edge of their testimony may be thereby 
dulled and that thus they may be forbidden to 
bring to men the sweet strains of heavenly music. 

During a revival in Baylor College, Belton, 
Texas, a young woman came under conviction 
for sin and was brought to face the question of a 
decision for Christ. Satan, as usual, thrust in 
the question of social pleasures. The girl came 
to one of the religious workers and said, "If I 
become a Christian, may I, etc.?'' naming the 
things which are usually named under such con- 
ditions. The worker felt that here was a place 
to drive a sure nail, and said, ''We miay as well 
make a square issue of this matter. If you are 
not willing to give up these worldly amusements, 
you cannot be a Christian.'/ The young woman 
was not convinced ; indeed, no effort was made to 
convince her, and she felt somewhat aggrieved 
that she should be asked arbitrarily to give up 
what she regarded as innocent pleasures. She 
fought against the persuasions of the Spirit, and 
was rapidly losing her interest in spiritual things. 
A wiser worker learned of the situation and pur- 



AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS 173 

sued more tactful methods. ''You do not wish 
to engage in these pleasures now, do you?'' 
''Certainly not ; I am busy with my school duties, 
and, besides, the laws of the college forbid it/' 
"Then you respect and obey the laws of the col- 
lege in these matters. Are you not also willing 
to obey the laws of Christ?" "Yes, I am, but 
there is my difficulty. I am not persuaded that 
the laws of ClTrist forbid these things." "Well, 
you do not wish to engage in these pleasures at 
present. It will be months before you face these 
problems. Why not sit down at Christ's feet and 
submit to him, leaving these problems to be 
faced in their own time?" "Would he forgive 
and accept me on such terms ?" "Why, certainly ; 
those are the only terms upon which he will ac- 
cept you. Being a Christian means to trust him 
and to refer to him all the questions of daily life." 
This all seemed different and attractive, and 
the young woman readily gave her heart to the 
Saviour. As the months passed, under the strong 
Christian influences of that mighty school, she 
dedicated herself to the work of foreign missions, 
so when the next summer came around she had 
no heart nor care for the pleasures and indul- 
gences which she had formerly prized. An issue 
sharply and unwisely made at the previous time 
might have kept that splendid young woman away 
from the kingdom* 



174 WINNING TO CHRIST 

A -pastor's wife, a woman of rare charm and 
power in spiritual things, said awhile ago, "li my 
church and pastor had not been wise enough to 
avoid an issue with me on the amusement prob- 
lems during my girlhood days, I think I should 
have made spiritual shipwreck." 

It is by no means intended that authority is 
not to be exercised or that church discipline is 
to be neglected. Both authority and discipline 
are essential and perhaps both are sadly relaxed 
in our day ; authority and discipline are most 
effective, however, when they can guide safely 
along perilous ways, avoiding untimely issues and 
open breaks. 

We will need to guide our young people in 
nsing the Bible in the solution of these problems. 
Young Christians often make the mistake of sup- 
posing that the Bible is a book of statutes in which 
are to be found definite laws condemning all 
things which are wrong. Hence, they come ask- 
ing for chapter and verse in which this or that 
is said to be wrong. ''I will not engage in this 
if you will show me in the Bible that it is wrong." 
Clearly they have a wrong conception of the 
Bible. It gives no complete catalogue of indul- 
gences which we are to avoid. If it had done this 
for its own day, it would have been obsolete and 
out-of-date for every age since. 

Little children require rules and specific pro- 
hibition; as they grow older priiiciples are 



AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS 175 

grasped by which the various problems of Hfe 
are to be solved. The Bible brings us certain 
principles, in the application of which we are to 
find a solution for every problem that confronts 
us. It may suffice here to mention a few of these 
broad principles and indicate the manner of their 
application. 

All doubtful things must be avoided. ^'He that 
doubteth is condemned if he eat'' (Rom. 14: 23). 
Paul is discussing the propriety of eating meats 
offered to idols. He declares that it is not wrong 
so to do, but, ''He that doubteth is condemned if 
he eat.'' To do a thing concerning whose right- 
ness or propriety we are in doubt is wrong. So 
long as we are in doubt we may not proceed. If 
in the matter of social indulgences and amuse- 
ment problems we have doubts, we may not in- 
dulge until we have satisfied ourselves that the 
way is clear and that in our indulgence we will 
do no wrong. This one principle faithfully ap- 
plied will settle many questions in social life. 

xA.ll things must be avoided which dim the light 
zvith which we shine. ''Ye are the light of the 
world-' (Matt. 5: 14). Our mission, our business 
in the world, is to shine. All about us men grope 
in the darkness and are lost. We are left here 
to give light to these lost, wandering souls. Any 
act or indulgence which will impair the brightness 
of the light with which we shine is, of course, for- 
bidden ; nay, we should in good conscience gladly 



176 WINNING TO CHRIST 

deny to ourselves any such pleasure. Questions 
of amusement and indulgence must be decided in 
the light of our Christian influence. If we have 
applied the first test and find that no doubt exists 
as to the innocence of the thing proposed, we 
must apply this second test and determine its pos- 
sible effect in dimming the light of our Christian 
life. 

Abstinence for the sake of others. All things 
are to be avoided, however innocent and harmless 
to ourselves, which bring harm to others. *'If 
meat maketh my .brother to offend, I will eat no 
flesh while the world standeth^' (i Cor. 8: 13). 
Here Paul is discussing the meat offered to idols, 
which he has declared it is not wrong to eat. But, 
he says, my brother may be weaker than I and 
not so well informed, and because he is in doubt 
or for other reasons, it may be sin for him to 
eat such meat. ''Wherefore, if meat make my 
brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the 
world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." 
Abstinence for the 'sake of weaker people is more 
than a duty ; it is a glorious privilege. We may 
not do that in social life which will do harm to 
people weaker than ourselves. This principle 
may^*help us in many a perplexity. 

These are but a few out of the many principles 
laid down in the Bible by which we may solve the 
problems of daily life. Many questions in social 
life do not, perhaps, involve right and wrong. 



AMUSEMENT PROBLEMS 177 

SO much as they involve expediency and pro- 
priety. How much of ourselves and our time 
may we give to recreation and pleasure? What 
effect will certain pleasures, apparently innocent 
and harmless, have upon our finer sensibilities. 
What is worth while in social life in view of our 
high purpose to develop the purest and best 
Christian character? 

Normal adults do not wish to keep back young 
life from pleasure and innocent amusements. 
They recognize that these are natural and nec- 
essary ; they will encourage and provide for inno- 
cent amusements as the best and only real safe- 
guard against things harmful. They will at the 
same time seek to keep pleasure in its own subor- 
dinate place, leading the growing youth to set 
his heart increasingly on the highest and holiest 
ideals. 

RESTATEMENT. 

Amusement Problems. 

Young people are thus — 

(i) Kept away from Christ. 

(2) Deterred when under conviction. 

(3) Swept away from the church. 

(4) Disturbed in religious life. 

L Recognize necessity of pleasure. 

II. Guide, do not simply restrain. 
12 



178 WINNING TO CHRIST 

III. Distinguish between moral wrong and spiritual 

harm. 

IV. Avoid direct issues if possible. 
V. Guide in use of the Bible. 

1. The Bible brings us broad principles by which 

every problem in life may have solution. 

2. Illustrations of these principles. 
(i) Doubtful things are sinful. 

(2) Ye are the light of the world. 

(3) Abstinence for the sake of others. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

Why are amusement problems of consequence? 

What five general suggestions are made relative to 
dealing with these problems? 

Why should we be careful to make it clear that we 
do not oppose pleasure in itself? 

What is your impression as to the suggestion that 
we should provide innocent amusements in order to 
counteract the evil? What might be done in this direc- 
tion in your community? 

State and illustrate the distinction between moral ' 
wrong and spiritual harm. 

Why should direct issues with young people be 
avoided as far as possible? Give an illustration. 

What is the nature of the guidance found in the Bible 
concerning these problems? 

Name the three Bible principles set forth and show 
how each may be applied to problems of amusement. 



XVI. 

THE YOUNG BELIEVER AND THE 
LARGER CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

WHEN we have brought to confession and 
baptism, we have not completed our task ; 
We have only fairly begun. We have not reached 
the goal; we have only made a start toward the 
goal. The teacher who said, "I want tO' give up 
my class because now^ they are all saved/' had a 
poor conception of the real ends at which we aim. 
A pastor was doing some missionary work in 
the mountains of Kentucky. He visited a home 
where a minister had never been before. When 
he arose to leave, his attention was directed to 
a poor little babe in a crude crib. There were 
evidences that years had passed over the child. 
The father said, 'This is our great sorrow. Nine 
years ago this baby came to our home, and we 
looked to see him grow; the years have passed 
and there has been no growth." The pastor 
walked down the mountain side, thinking of that 
great sorrow. He was thinking yet further — 
how the Christ went down into the shadows of 
death to redeem the lost and of how many times 
he sits beside the spiritual cradle and waits for 
growth and fruits when, alas, there is no growth 
and no fruit! 

(179) 



180 



WINNING TO CHRIST 



When we bring a soul into the kingdom we 
have merely a babe. It is now our task to bring 
this babe through the stages of growth, from in- 
fancy to youth, from youth to maturity, from ma- 
turity to full manhood and perfection in the Lord. 
Measured by the standard of numbers, Jesus 
would hardly be regarded as a greatly successful 
soul-winner. At the close of his ministry he had 
perhaps a few more than five hundred converts. 
It is not difficult to see that he gave himself pre- 
eminently, not to making converts, but to making 
lives. With what patience and persistence he 
sought to build himself, his own life and char- 
acter, into the handful of men who followed him ! 

Paul, measured by any standard, could fairly 
be regarded as a great winner of souls. But Paul 
gave himself most largely to the winning of those 
whom he had won. ''My little children, of whom 
I travail in birth again until Christ be formed 
in you." When Paul had gone through a circuit 
of cities making converts, he did not push out into 
further circuits, making yet other converts; 
rather, he carefully retraced his steps, minister- 
ing to the converts he had made and seeking to 
reproduce in them the Christ life. 

When we have brought the children to Christ, 
a simple and easy task, we have then the long and 
difficult task of training and developing. Some 
teachers have peculiar zeal and gifts for evan- 
gelism. In a few cases these gifts have 



THE YOUNG BELIEVER 181 

been so marked that it has been thought well to 
keep the teacher with classes in which are a 
goodly number of unsaved pupils. Other teachers 
have the fine qualities of character which fit them 
to be companions for timid Christian youth. Yet 
it is perhaps true to say that the instinct to win 
and the instinct to nurture cannot be entirely 
apart from each other. When God gives mother- 
Hood he gives also the instinct to mother. When 
God plants the disposition to win souls, he plants 
with that disposition the impulse to nurture the 
souls which have been won. 

The yoimg believer is to be comforted and sup- 
ported in the Christian life. If he has come to 
Christ early he has before him many years of 
immaturity in which he will require patient and 
loving oversight. It is easy to discourage him 
by exacting requirements and critical attitudes. 
The better elements of child nature will hardly 
respond to chiding, such as, ''See what you have 
done, and you pretend to be a Christian, too!" 
vSomewhere in the period of adolescence there is 
likely to come with the boy and even with the 
girl a season of rebellion against authority, per- 
haps of waywardness. Many youths of strength 
and promise have gone on the rocks because par- 
ents and teachers failed of forbearance in this 
crucial time. I make here no plea against home 
or church discipline, rather I plead for wise and 
patient watchcare. The church, like the home, 



182 WINNING TO CHRIST 

will suffer long, and by all possible means will 
seek to avoid an open break with the restless, 
unsteady youth. These youths will try the 
teacher's soul by their irreverence; they will 
grieve the pastor by sitting on the back seats and 
talking while he preaches; they will be and do 
many things which hardly adorn the Christian 
life, but they are, nevertheless, to be loved and 
helped and guided by wise and strong spirits who 
have not forgotten how the world looked to them 
when they were in this period of life. 

The young believer is to he led to seek training 
in the Baptist Young People's Union. If he is 
converted in his early ''teens'' he should be in- 
duced to unite with the Junior B. Y. P. U. If the 
church has no such organizations, those who are 
concerned for the development of Christian youth 
should lead off in forming such societies. 

A right attitude of sympathy and helpfulness 
on the part of the superintendent and the teach- 
ers in the Sunday school toward the B. Y. P. U. 
and the Junior B. Y. P. U. would in many in- 
stances solve their most difficult problems and 
set them in the way to have high times in their 
B. Y. P. U. work. Let all of the constructive 
forces of the church rally to bind young believers 
to the training service of the church, let them 
have a clear vision of what this training may 
mean in practical usefulness in all the later years, 
let them by prayer and counsel guide these young 



THE YOUNG BELIEVER 183 

people in their efforts, and they will find in the 
B. Y. P. U. a fruitful source of trained workers 
for all lines of practical church service. 

The young believer is to be directed toward 
the denominational school for his college training. 
He is to be inspired to seek a higher education. 
Happily, poverty is in these days no insuperable 
barrier ; indeed, save in the rarest cases and per- 
haps in none, are there insurmountable difficulties 
in the path of the aspiring youth who thirsts for 
higher learning. Urge this fact upon the youth 
of your acquaintance, in season and out of season. 
Such a seed-thought dropped into the mind at an 
opportune time has started many fine youths in 
the way to the larger things. 

And when the question of the choice of an in- 
stitution arises be ready with a good word for 
your own denominational school. All things con- 
sidered, such school is likely to be the best for the 
youth whose Christian development and useful- 
ness you seek. Whether or not your young friend 
contemplates a college course, send his name to 
the president of your denominational college, and 
ask him to send a letter and literature setting 
forth the reasons why a young Christian should 
seek by higher education to fit himself for the 
largest usefulness. Such a letter coming to a 
young person on the threshold of life may bless 
in many ways, even if that person shall never 
feel that the way is open to a college course. And 



184 WINNING TO CHRIST 

when the young beUever returns from college, 
whether on vacation or permanently, let every 
effort be made to help him to fit back into the 
church life and find a place of service. The com- 
plaint is sometimes made that our young people 
returning from academy and college do not as- 
sume the obligations and duties of church life. 
Possibly the difficulty lies partly in the fact that 
tactful efforts are not made to enable these young 
people to find themselves in the new life and to 
guide them to tasks worthy of their hands. 

The young believer is to be guided in the 
choice of a life occupation. Earlier perhaps than 
we think, the adolescent boy is pondering the 
question of a life business. He is not to be ridi- 
culed or sneered at because he takes this question 
to heart even though it be years before the matter 
can be finally determined. Much can be done 
toward directing the thought toward the higher 
and more useful occupations. 

Especially are the claims of the Christian min- 
istry to be pressed upon those of our Christian 
boys and young men who seem to possess quali- 
ties which might fit them for usefulness as heralds 
of the cro'ss. The most urgent need of our 
churches and of the Christianity of our day is 
more and better preachers. Now, if ever, we 
should be praying to the Lord of the harvest to 
thrust out more laborers into the harvest. And 
when we pray in earnest we will cast about to 



THE YOUNG BELIEVER 185 

help answer our own prayer. A kindly hand on 
the shoulder with the earnest inquiry as to 
whether the claims of the gospel ministry have 
ever been duly considered has started numbers 
of youths toward special service. Some who 
know from personal experience may urge the joys 
of the ministry, and all of us may urge the high 
privileges and unsurpassed opportunities for con- 
tributing to the well being of our fellows. 

To young women many avenues of Christian 
work are open, and every Christian girl should 
be brought to face the question of preparing for 
some special service. Many young women are 
choosing lines of community or missionary ac- 
tivity in which they may receive sufficient wages 
for a livelihood, while others seek training for 
particular lines of usefulness with no thought of 
remuneration. Both for young men and young 
women the mission fields of the earth are waiting 
white unto the harvest. 

The young believer should he brought to know^ 
and to participate in, general denominational 
work. Pastors and teachers would do well to 
strive to make every young Christian in their 
charge an active, efficient denominational worker. 
This goal will not be reached save by painstaking 
and intelligent effort. 

The methods and policies of our denomina- 
tional organization are exceedingly simple: (i) 



186 WINNING TO CHRIST 

All are familiar with the formation and organi- 
zation of the local church. (2) These local 
churches in a given county or limited section 
send messengers to form the district association. 
(3) Messengers from the churches and the dis- 
trict associations in turn send messengers to con- 
stitute the state convention or association. (4) 
The churches, the associations and state conven- 
tions join in sending messengers to constitute the 
Southern Baptist Convention. These organiza- 
tions are designed to make possible cooperative 
effort for missions, education, benevolence and 
reform work. They possess no authority over 
the churches, but rather derive their rights and 
powers from the churches. Surely our young 
people who shortly must assume the responsi- 
bilities for all church activities should be informed 
with reference to these policies and principles of 
denominational endeavor. Even in their early 
Christian life they may be chosen to represent 
the church in the district association, and asked 
to bring back to the church some report of the 
proceedings and of their impressions. 

In like manner our women have a complete sys- 
tem and organization for denominational effort. 
Induce the Christian girl growing into woman- 
hood to put her life into touch with this mighty 
movement of her Christian sisters, and you may 
render to her and to the kingdom of God a far- 
reaching service. 



THE YOUNG BELIEVER 187 

The following outlines may be filled out and 
indefinitely enlarged upon. They may be used as 
the basis for the fullest instruction on the struc- 
ture of our denominational life. 

Baptist organization for service : 

1. The individual. 

2. The church. 

3. The district association. 

4. The state convention. 

5. The Southern Baptist Convention. 

Lines of service : 

1. Personal and social. 

2. Civic duty and reforms. 

3. Benevolence. 

4. Education. 

5. Missions. 

The young believer should he equipped to 
teach the Bible, For himself and for others the 
teaching of the Bible is a fundamental service. 
Happily this path of usefulness is open to prac- 
tically all of our young people if they will but 
equip themselves for it. The Convention Nor- 
mal Course, both in its message and its methods, 
is especially adapted to prepare young Christians 
for the teaching of the Word. This course sets 
forth the most approved methods for the organi- 
zation and management of the Bible school; it 



188 WINNING TO CHRIST 

presents basal studies in Sunday school psychol- 
ogy or pupil 'Study; it develops the vital prin- 
ciples of the art of teaching; it offers carefully 
prepared and adapted studies in Bible doctrines 
and Bible history. Already our denominational 
schools are offering these Normal Courses, and 
it is confidently believed that young people into 
the many thousands will in local churches, in 
training school, in encampments, be speedily en- 
rolled for these studies with a view to know and 
be able to teach the Word of Life. 

The young believer is to be made an intelligent 
advocate of missionary effort. 

Missions, the carrying of the evangel to the 
whole world, is the chief business of every be- 
liever and is the chief end of every church. If 
we do all the things herein proposed for our 
young believer and fail to grow in him an abid- 
ing purpose to lay out the resources of his purse, 
of his brain and life, for the carrying of the gospel 
to the whole world we have fallen short of our 
privilege and our obligation. 

RESTATEMENT. 

The Young Believer and the Larger Christian Life. 

Conversion and culture. 

Example of Jesus and of Paul. 

L To be comforted and supported in the Christian 
life. 



THE YOUNG BELIEVER 189 

11. To be led to the B. Y. P. U. for training. 

III. To be directed toward the denominational school. 

IV. To be guided in choice of life occupation. 

V. Should be brought to know denominational life. 

VI. Should be equipped to teach the Bible. 

VII. Should be made an intelligent advocate of mission- 
ary effort. 

To Guide and Test Study. 

What of our task when we have brought to Christ? 
Illustrate by the example of Jesus and of Paul. 

Discuss the duty to comfort and support young con- 
verts. 

What should be the attitude of the superintendent 
and teachers toward the B. Y. P. U. ? 

What may we do for the young believer in the 
matter of higher education? 

What of guiding the young in the matter of a life 
occupation? What of urging the claims of the Christian 
ministry? What of special service for young women? 

State the method and policy of our denominational 
organization. How may we enlist our youth in denom- 
inational work? 

What of teaching the Bible? What special oppor- 
tunity is offered for equipment? 

What of the young believer and missions? 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND 
EXAMINATION. 

These question's may, at the close of the study, be 
assigned as a special lesson. Careful and constant re- 
view, at each recitation, of all the preceding lessons, 
will bring the class to this final test already prepared. 
At least sixteen questions, one for each chapter, should 
be selected from those given below for the examination. 
Pupils making a grade of 70 per cent are given appro- 
priate seal for their diploma. 

I. 

1. Name five possible designations for the studies pro- 

posed, and tell why each is unsatisfactory. 

2. Why do we adopt "Winning to Christ?" 

11. 

3. Discuss five reasons for the study of our theme. 

III. 

4. State the 'culture theory" regarding the child. 

Name four different views of this theory. 

5. State and defend the "conversion theory." 

6. Name three things not "the supreme need." In 

what four senses do we need Christ? 

IV. 

7. Discuss the question, "Is the child religious"? 

8. Discuss, "Is the child in the kingdom of God?" 

9. Is the child "God's child"? 

10. Is the child "saved"? 

V. 

11. Name five requisites to successful evangelism. 

12. Who should be trained with a view to evangelism? 

What special information is desirable, and how 
may it be secured? 

13. Tell something of the ''content of truth" which we 

are to teach with special view to evangelism. 
(190) 



REVIEW AND EXAMINATION 191 

VI. 

14. Name habits which hinder conversion. 

15. Name habits which contribute to early conversion. 

16. Discuss two methods for securing attendance of chil- 

dren and young people on the preaching services. 
VII. 

17. Name at least five suggestions as to "Winning to 

Christ through the Sunday school." 

18. How may grading contribute to evangelism? 

19. Why use young converts in our efforts for others? 

VIII. 

20. Name six suggestions for dealing with individuals. 

21. Why deal with the individual alone? 

22. Name some difficulties to deal with. 

IX. 

23. Why use the Bible in winning to Christ? 

24. How use the Bible in winning to Christ? 

25. Quote (i) two passages which may be used to pro- 

duce conviction; (2) two passages suitable to 
bring to a decision ; (3) two passages which show 
the duty of public confession. 
X. 

26. Why are lost men not saved? Make two suggestions 

for dealing with those who Ihave no conviction of 
sin ; give at least two passages of Scripture which 
may be used to produce conviction. 

27. Indicate four difficulties which keep men away from 

Christ, giving Scriptures for use in each case. 

28. What instruction shall we give those who desire to 

be saved, but do not know the way of life? 
XL 

29. Discuss how early the child may properly be bap- 

tized. 

30. State some possible reasons why parents may oppose 

the baptism of their children. 



192 WINNING TO CHRIST 

31. How may we cooperate with parents in this matter 

of winning children to Christ? 

XII. 

32. Name five things concerning the church which 

ought to be taught to young converts. 

33. What is the act of baptism? What is its design? 

Give reason for your answer in each case. 

34. Name three things concerning the supper which 

ought to be taught to young Christians. 

XIII. 

35. Name at least five of the six teachings which we 

may impart to young believers as regards the 
matter of a religiouu experience. 

36. Give illustrations to show how the sense of forgive- 

ness may come either suddenly or gradually. 
3"^. How is the experience of a child likely to differ 
from that of an adult? 

XIV. 

38. In what life-period may we expect especial distress 

from doubt? 

39. Name types of doubt and which type is most serious. 

40. Name four fruitful sources of doubt as regards per- 

sonal acceptance with the Lord. 

XV. 

41. Name some serious results which grow out of ques- 

tionable amusements. 

42. Give five suggestions as to dealing with these prob- 

lems. 

43. State three principles laid down in the Bible which 

may help us to solve these problems. 

XVI. 

14. Discuss seven obligations which rest upon Christian 
workers as regards young believers. 



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